'Madness & Modernity' opens at Wellcome Collection
1 April 2009
Vienna at the turn of the 20th century was one of Europe's leading centres for modernism and psychiatric innovation. This time was a tumultuous period of transition in which the arts, literature, architecture and philosophy blossomed - and when Sigmund Freud, among others, pioneered new ideas about the self and psychiatry.
‘ Madness & Modernity’, which opens today, presents the variety of ways madness and art interacted in Vienna. The free exhibition explores the influence of psychiatry on early modernism, as well as encouraging us to reflect on how we deal with mental illness some 100 years on.
Curated by architectural historian Dr Leslie Topp and art historian Dr Gemma Blackshaw, the exhibition includes original drawings, paintings, design objects and therapeutic equipment. Two specially commissioned films by the artist David Bickerstaff take viewers on a journey through the spaces of Viennese asylums of the 18th and 20th centuries.
‘Madness & Modernity’ is accompanied online by image galleries and videos. A lively programme of discussions, debates and workshops held at Wellcome Collection will coincide with the exhibition’s run, allowing visitors to engage with experts from the arts and sciences.
‘Madness & Modernity’ is open alongside another Wellcome Collection exhibition, ' Bobby Baker’s Diary Drawings', which explores one woman’s experience of the mental health system.
'Madness & Modernity: Mental illness and the visual arts in Vienna 1900' runs from 1 April 2009 until 28 June 2009 at Wellcome Collection.
Image: Portrait of Peter Altenberg, by Gustav Jagerspacher, 1909.
Credit: Wien Museum, Vienna