Selected Works
   
     
 

A Psychiatrist's Perspective by Dr Eugen Koh, Senior Lecturer in Art in Mental Health, Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne and Consultant Psychiatrist, St.Vincent's Hospital

 
The commentary accompanying the online exhibition is to serve as a guide to those who wish to approach these creative works from a clinical or mental health perspective. The comments reflect only my personal perspective and another psychiatrist or mental health clinician may choose to consider each work differently. My emphasis on certain psychological aspects of the works aims to highlight certain issues from an educational perspective. This approach is not intended to diminish the many rich and complex layers of meaning a work may have and you, as the viewer, may have a different perspective on these works.

 
 
 

Graeme Doyle

Untitled 01 1990

Oil on artist board 50.5 x 40.5cm

This work, by a professional artist who suffers from schizophrenia, may be appreciated aesthetically or analytically. Note that in the foreground the figures are quite distinct and objects such as flowers are of the ‘real' world. The background however, consists of merged figures and objects with an apparent loss of boundaries and of reality. Could it be suggested that the background reflects a psychotic part of the creator's personality, whilst the foreground reflects a non-psychotic part?

     
   
     
     
 
Bruce Doyle

Number 68 1992

Acrylic on masonite board 90cm x 120cm

Bruce Doyle was an accomplished artist who suffered from schizophrenia. This vibrant work may reflect an energised state of mind. Dr Eric Cunningham Dax considered this work as characteristic of x-ray pictures by people suffering from disturbance of thought possession in schizophrenia. The images can be seen right through, lacking solidity and with ill-defined boundaries.

   
     
     
     
 

Bruce Doyle

Still Life with Aquarium 1988

Acrylic on paper 42.0cm x 29.5cm

Although Still Life with Aquarium was made at about the same time as work Number 68, the difference between the two is remarkable. This work involved a multi-staged printing process and a high degree of organizational skills, suggesting the work was created with a relatively calm state of mind. Perhaps viewers would have more readily related the previous work Number 68 to the artist's diagnosis of schizophrenia, than this carefully made work. This highlights the problematic nature of correlating artworks to an individual diagnosis, rather than understanding them in the context of the artist's precise state of mind at the time.

   
     
     
     
 

Artist's name withheld

Untitled 1994

Oil on artist's board 50.5cm x 40.5cm

This work is by a girl who died by suicide at the age of 16. In the preceding two years her angry outbursts and moodiness were thought to be ‘typical adolescent behaviour'. Three weeks before her death she was diagnosed by her General Practitioner as suffering from depression. She was studying art at school and had an extensive folio of works. These works initially showed a preoccupation with depressive themes, however several of her works such as this one suggest the possibility of an underlying psychosis. One wonders if she was painting a visual hallucination of eyes. The artist's name has been withheld at the request of her family, however they are happy for the Collection to display and publish her work for educational purposes.
   
     
     
     
 

Artist's name withheld

Untitled 1989

Gouache and oil pastel on paper 42cm x 60cm

This artist painted over 280 works to express his experience of myocardial infarction and subsequent coronary bypass surgery and his struggle with depression during recovery. This particular work is about his experience in the coronary care unit where he was admitted with acute myocardial infarction. The artist painted an ECG monitor over the top of a portrait of himself. He explained, “It is just the heart…they were not interested in anything else. They only looked at the monitor, not me”.
   
     
     
     
 

Carla Krijt

The Mountain, 2001

Oil on canvas 50.5cm x 40cm

Carla Krijt has been sending her works to the Collection over the past 15 years, accompanied by detailed notes. The precise nature of her illness is unclear, however her letters suggest war related trauma in early childhood. Her paintings are about her dreams with an emphasis on symbols. She wrote: ‘I have been drawing anxiety pictures for relaxation, frustration, anger turn to positive creativity in order to make sense out of the storm that rock me over the years'. Interestingly, her paintings are remarkably calm and still.