“ He died in 2007 , but really he was utterly long before that , ” explicate the bright - eyed woman to a elbow room full of sympathetic listeners . “ Bill died in 2000 , when the disease meant he was no longer able to describe . ”
ArtistWilliam Utermohlenwas the “ Bill ” in interrogation here , and the person who uttered these heart - wrenching words was his wife , Patricia . She was speak at theGV Art galleryin London atWilliam Utermohlen : Artistic decline through Alzheimer ’s – an consequence exploring the relationship between the artist ’s workplace and his affliction with the disease .
Herself an art historian , Patricia kept the consultation on tenterhooks with a firm stream of heart - warming , insightful and very personal anecdotes . The entire room was captivated by the passion with which she verbalise about her husband and his workplace .
A series of Utermohlen ’s works on display reflect how his art changed as his Alzheimer ’s progressed . I could n’t aid but feel that the use the word “ decline ” in the exhibition ’s title was somehow unjustified , even roughshod . It ’s lawful that Utermohlen ’s lack of control over his crusade forced him to abandon oils for easier - to - use watercolours and pencils , but his posterior works are equally stunning , and provide fascinating perceptiveness into the mind of a soul with Alzheimer ’s .
As his disease march on , Utermohlen became more and more interested in self - portraiture , and his own head – in particular his brainpan – became an ever more spectacular lineament in his works . Utermohlen ’s wife also drew attending to strange , black , half - candid doorways which started to seem in the background of his work . “ It was as if he knew he was going to a very dark position and he knew he could n’t do anything about it , ” she enounce . “ By the end he could n’t even discern his own paintings … that was the saddest matter ” .
All of this could have made for a rather depressing eventide . But the unembarrassed optimism of Patricia Utermohlen and the evening ’s other verbaliser made for an outcome which was as uplifting as it was informative . Only the stoniest of essence could break to be moved by the business relationship of how art had allowed Bill to communicate his sentiment long after verbal communication was far beyond him . If the coming events in the series are even half as good as this one , I would certainly urge paying them a visit .
Further insight into Utermohlen ’s mind was provided by his biographer , clinical psychologistRachel Davenhill . “ With dementia , people get kill off socially long before constitutive death , ” she said . “ There ’s a huge social stigma . ”
Davenhill passionately believes that medicine and artistic creation can help hoi polloi with Alzheimer ’s disease remain socially alive – a view to which Patricia Utermohlen ’s experience bears brawny testament . During her presentation , Patricia withdraw one evening when she was sitting at habitation with her husband hear to a philharmonic by Mahler , long after he had ceased to be able to put across with her in any way . Moved by the music , she explain how she sprain to seem at her hubby and remark tear teem down his brass – he too was clearly move .
That Utermohlen was able-bodied to cover with his art as his disease advance astonished the even ’s final speaker , Stephen Gentleman , neuropathologist at Imperial College London . “ It ’s stupefying , ” he say . “ Utermohlen just should n’t have had the genial power to be able-bodied to have a bun in the oven on doing these as long as he did . ”
Then come the thunderclap – the give-and-take that stuck with me and played over in my headspring as I lay in seam later that even : “ It sounds awful , ” Gentleman secern me , “ but in cases like these , you really desire that the patient themself loses understanding as quickly as possible , because to be in a trunk whose Einstein is fail and still have insight into what is going on must be simply dread . ” The kit and caboodle on display bespeak that Utermohlen did not have even this little mercy .
Despite this suffering , Utermohlen ’s allegiance to his art provides viewers today with a singular glance into the effect of a declining brain .
The case was the first in a serial of four curated byGV Art and Urban Timesexploring the theme of injury from both aesthetic and scientific perspectives .
Image : Self - Portrait ( Green ) by William Utermohlen , giclee , 1997 , edition of 150 , 36 x 36 , courtesy of the artist and GV Art
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