general article Artistic Production Following Brain a b s t r a c t We know little about the Damage: A Study of Three Artists neurologic bases of art produc- tion. The idea that the right brain hemisphere is the “artistic brain” is widely held, despite the lack of evidence for this claim. Anjan Chatterjee, Artists with brain damage can offer insight into these laterality Bianca Bromberger, questions. The authors used an instrument called the Assess- ment of Art Attributes to exam- William B. Smith II, ine the work of two individuals with left-brain damage and one Rebecca Sternschein with right-hemisphere damage. In each case, their art became and Page Widick more abstract and distorted and less realistic. They also painted with looser strokes, less depth and more vibrant colors. No unique pattern was observed following right-brain damage. he cognitive neuroscience of aesthetics is in our ability to talk, move, recognize However, art produced after T left-brain damage also became its infancy. Only recently has neuroscience joined a tradition objects, apprehend emotions and more symbolic. These results of empirical aesthetics that dates back to Fechner in the 19th make logical decisions. By contrast, show that the neural basis of art century [1]. With rare exceptions, it is not clear that neurosci- while diseases of the brain can cer- production is distributed across entists consider aesthetics worthy of inquiry. Conversely, some tainly alter the ability to produce both hemispheres in the human aestheticians probably consider neuroscientific inquiry into art, the alterations are sometimes brain. aesthetics an abomination. considered improvements. Cases of In this paper, we explore a specific domain within neuro- improved artistic abilities fall into aesthetics: the effects of brain damage on artistic production a general class of paradoxical func- [2,3]. Neuropsychology has been instrumental in advancing tional facilitations produced by brain damage [6]. our knowledge of various complex systems, such as perception, In the clinical experience of author Chatterjee, relatively few memory and language, but its impact on the study of aesthetics visual artists continue to produce art after brain damage, ren- has thus far been relatively minimal. The limited data from dering it difficult to find many pre- and post-morbid works of which one might draw inferences on the subject are most often art for empirical study. However, several case studies of artists found in book chapters rather than in on-line journal articles, who experienced neurological disorders do consider changes hindering their availability. Beyond the constraints of limited in their artwork in the context of the location and extent of data and impediments to its access, fundamental questions neural damage [7,8]. When such cases are examined, the about proper methods within the field remain unanswered analyses of post-morbid stylistic differences, although often [4]. Finally, a deep underlying concern is that perhaps the detailed, generally lack quantitative and blind approaches in entire effort is misguided. Art, by its very nature, might resist assessing changes produced by brain injury [9]. How can one the kind of reduction insisted upon by science. Alternatively, be certain about changes in artistic production rendered by once filtered through the lens of science, art might lose the brain damage without a measure of the artwork itself? Claims very qualities that make it a special human endeavor. about changes in art after brain damage are typically made How might we make best use of the experiences of artists post hoc. These claims are then supported by one or two il- who have suffered brain damage in order to better understand lustrative examples. the effects of brain damage on artistic production? One strat- An instrument for assessment of artistic change is desper- egy is to examine instances in which brain damage produces ately needed. We have argued elsewhere [10] that such an a change in artistic output [5]. The effect of brain damage on instrument should be componential—it should assess different the capacity to produce visual art contrasts sharply with that on components of artwork—and it should be quantitative, so that many other human capacities. Diseases of the brain can impair hypotheses can be tested formally. To address this need, we re- cently developed the Assessment of Art Attributes (AAA) [11]. Anjan Chatterjee (neurologist, cognitive neuroscientist), Department of Neurology, The AAA assesses 12 descriptive attributes applicable to any University of Pennsylvania, 2 West Gates, 3400 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104, piece of visual art: six attributes refer to formal/stylistic prop- U.S.A. E-mail: <[email protected]>. erties and six to content/representational properties. In the Bianca Bromberger (research specialist), Department of Neurology, University of Penn- sylvania, 2 West Gates, 3400 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104, U.S.A. E-mail: primary stage of the experiment, participants in this study were <[email protected]>. asked to do a preliminary assessment of 24 paintings from William B. Smith II (medical student), 904 Webster Street, New Orleans, LA 70118, U.S.A. the Western canon. These are paintings by well-known art- E-mail: <[email protected]>. ists but not their most famous works. Participants rated each Rebecca Sternschein (medical student), 1935 Eastchester Road, Apt. 25E, Bronx, NY painting with respect to each of the 12 attributes. This pro- 10461, U.S.A. E-mail: <[email protected]>. cedure ensured that the participants were familiarized with Page Widick (medical student), 1 E. Chase Street, #913, Baltimore, MD 21202, U.S.A. E-mail: <[email protected]>. the specific attributes of interest. In the application stage of See <www.mitpressjournals.org/toc/leon/44/5> for supplemental files associated with the experiment, participants were then presented with the this issue. work of the three artists we are interested in for this study and ©2011 ISAST LEONARDO, Vol. 44, No. 5, pp. 405–410, 2011 405 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_a_00240 by guest on 24 September 2021 Fig. 1. left: Katherine sherwood, Test Sites, mixed media on canvas, 203 × 183 cm, 1992. (© Katherine sherwood) right: Katherine sherwood, Cart before the Horse, mixed media on canvas, 208 × 274 cm, 2003–2004. (© Katherine sherwood) examples of paintings by Katherine sherwood completed before her stroke (left) and afterward (right). made the same ratings. These works were Zlatio boiyadjiev deformities on the left side of the canvas. presented in random order, and the par- Zlatio Boiyadjiev (1903–1976) was a Alfred Kuhn, a contemporary of Corinth, ticipants were not made aware of which highly regarded Bulgarian painter. In provided the following observations just paintings were created before and which 1951 he also had a large left-hemisphere after Corinth’s stroke regarding his post- after the artists’ neurological injuries. Be- stroke, which led to aphasia and right- morbid work: low we give brief descriptions of the three sided weakness [17]. Like Sherwood, artists under consideration. he learned to paint with his left hand. The contours disappear, the bodies are often as if ripped asunder, deformed, Pre-morbidly, Boiyadjiev’s work has been disappeared into textures . also the described as using deep earth tones and faithfulness of portraits had ceased al- Study SubjectS containing large solid figures. His style most entirely . all detailed execution Katherine sherwood was considered natural and pictorial [18]. came to nothing. With wide stripes the Katherine Sherwood is a practicing artist After the stroke, Brown [19] described person is captured in essence. Character- ization is now exaggerated, indeed, often and professor at the University of Califor- Boiyadjiev’s work as fantastic and some- to caricature [21]. nia at Berkeley. She describes her pre- times bizarre, similar to dream cognition. morbid work as highly cerebral [12]. She The post-morbid work was described as More recently, Blanke [22] described integrated images such as transvestites, richer, more colorful and dazzling, with Corinth’s paintings after his stroke as medieval Solomon’s seals, spy photos and fluid, energetic lines, displaying vigor having broader brush strokes as well as bingo cards, incorporating themes such and inventiveness. An example of Zlatio less depth and spatial detail. Bäzner and as sexual identity, militarism and luck. Boiyadjiev’s pre-morbid paintings can be Hennerici analyzed shifts in Corinth’s In 1997 she suffered a left-hemisphere seen at <www.nationalartgallerybg.org/ post-morbid style and noted that work stroke, which led to right-sided hemipa- index.php?l=60&id=63>, and an exam- produced several months after the stroke resis and aphasia. Although her language ple of his post-morbid work can be found had little evidence of left-spatial neglect has improved significantly, she hesitates at <http://elenak.blog.bg/photos/ but described “increased subjectivity,” in conversation and speaks with an un- 24081/original/zlatu.JPG>. We used “coarsening of structure” and “distor- usual cadence [13]. Motor control on the both examples in this study. tion of faces” [23]. Examples of Corinth’s right side of her body has only recovered paintings used in the study are shown in modestly, and she cannot paint with her lovis corinth Fig. 2. right hand. She has since learned to paint Lovis Corinth (1858–1925)