Bipolar and paintings?

Question

A year ago or so I discovered a study where the power spectrum of paintings were compared among various painters from the past and present day. Among the present day painters there were bipolar, etc. people. These present day painter's paintings were then compared with painters such as Van Gogh. These finding were used to suggest a method to "prove" that painters, like Van Gogh, were bipolar or had some other mental illness. I thought this was interesting but have long since been unable to find this again for further review. Does anyone know of this particular study,? If so could you please reference it.

Answer 1

Hello there!

I did some digging and I believe the paper you're recalling is "Turbulent Luminance in Impassioned Van Gogh Paintings" by Aragón et al. (2006) later followed up by Beattie & Kriel (2019).

You will see that these papers analyze the 2D power spectrum of luminance fluctuations in Van Gogh's work---finding the same statistical "turbulent" signature seen in fluid flows and comparing those results to modern artists (some with bipolar traits) to suggest a link between mood-driven creativity and visual turbulence.

I would like you to keep in mind an important caveat. These findings show only statistical resemblance, not a direct cause-and-effect between bipolar disorder and artistic style. In other words, while certain patterns appear more often in artists known to experience mood swings, we can't assume that this automatically means they have---or were diagnosed with---bipolar disorder.

I hope this helped. Happy learning!