the myth of the tortured artist
Our culture holds onto a myth that artists need to be filled with grief, stress and turmoil in order to create great work. That work that made about depressing topics is “better” or more serious that work made by happy, well-adjusted artists. But I don’t buy it. There’s nothing inherently better about art made by “tortured artists” — it’s just that it is so easy to understand. People consider it Art-with-a-capital-A because they know how they are supposed to react to it (sad, shocked, whatever). The emotions are obvious and the themes are worn openly on their sleeves.
This style of art is quite fashionable though, and I think is often adopted by artists as a quick way to build street cred. A lot of the fine art photography you see in galleries and winning competitions is of the “depressed people in depressing rooms” genre. It bores me silly. I usually find that art made in this vein is rather bland and dimensionless. It all tends to look the same, feel the same. The artists are so focused on portraying turmoil (either their own or their subject’s), that I think it smothers their voice and blinds their vision. Nothing creative gets done in that emotional space — the stress is only worried over like a piece of spinach caught in your teeth.
Happy artists may seem boring, but only when they focus on the ‘happiness’ itself. Happiness is often an absence of strife, so it can feel a little empty on its own. It’s like talking about how good it feels to breath air. Nice, but not too compelling. But I don’t want to hear about people’s happiness per se — instead, I what see what people are capable of when they are happy. When artists are free of feeling like they have to play the part of the tortured artist, I think they are more open to creative possibilities. Instead of painting the world in the same shades of black and grey, they are able to discover a full range of emotions, subjects and themes. (Thanks Paula for bringing up this interesting subject!)
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Comments on 'the myth of the tortured artist'
It is good to see someone writing about this. I think it puts a weight on some artists and self-doubt into their work - questioning if they have ’suffered’ enough.
I believe the whole idea of the “tortured artist”, along with “starving artist”, is a marketing construct, designed to establish a brand identity and move product.
I don’t know if I necessarily believe that because I know a lot of artists who do draw upon hardship within their lives and channel it out through their art as a way to cope. This is all in absence of some grand marketing ploy, or even representation. Their work may not even be for sale.
OK, you got me. I was exaggerating a bit for the sake of argument. 
There are definitely artists who honestly draw on their own hardship as a source for their art. But I believe that our culture has created the idea that “tortured artists” are somehow better than other artists, and that many artists are convinced that they have to do this as well to be considered serious. Similarly, many artists struggle to make a living. Yet many people flip this, and believe that the only “true” artists are the ones who struggle. The struggle *can* be a part of art, but it is not a requirement.
I saw this site and just had to comment - it seems all art is about these days is poor tortured artists and blah blah and how their ‘tortured soul is supposed to shine through their canvas’ etc etc. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of fantastic pieces done by the artists who are tortured, depressed, drugged out etc but as Daniel says, it seems as tho to be a good artist you have to have some misery in ur life !!! I’m so over it!!!!!! Thanks for raising the subject
Your post made me smile:) I agree that the idea of suffering as a main inspiration is I guess a cliche . Its just that many people start drawing, writing, whatever when they dont feel so happy, when something is missing, when they are sad, heartbroken, haha..depressed…Unfortunatelly I cannot consider myself an artist but anyway if I have to give an example I can say that when I am happy I dont feel like doing anything else but living, when I am depressed - i tend to write or draw crazy pictures:) of course, it is different if one is an artist by profession or by vocation:)
I like your blog very much, thank God you dont seem to be a tortured artist at all :)))
I think that the “well-adjusted artist” is a myth. While carefree people who have skated through life tend to make fabulous parents… they make lousy artists. True artists are deviants; they are by their very nature out of step with society. Their lives are not about mass-acceptance and smooth socialization.
Art produced as a result of pain is not necessarily joyless or depressing, however. This is another myth. Many of history’s most breathtakingly beautiful works have come from artists in the depth of addiction, failure, despair and madness.
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paula (April 26th, 2007):
good post dan, as always a well written one at that.
I couldn’t agree with you more about the tortured artist crap. I personally can’t even make art when I”m feeling tortured, and who wants to see pain and despair all the time. Yours last few lines in the last paragraph says it all.