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Creativity Research Journal


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Method and Madness in the Arts and Sciences


Arnold M. Ludwig
Published online: 08 Jun 2010.

To cite this article: Arnold M. Ludwig (1998) Method and Madness in the Arts and Sciences, Creativity Research Journal, 11:2,
93-101, DOI: 10.1207/s15326934crj1102_1

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Creativity Research Journal Copyright 1998 by
1998, Vol. 11, No. 2,93-101 Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

FEATURED ARTICLE

Method and Madness in the Arts and Sciences


Arnold M. Ludwig
University of Kentucky

ABSTRACT: This article offers a new way to interpret creative arts, x2(3,N = 1,004)= 9 2 . 3 , <
~ .000 (Ludwig,
the relation between mental illness and creative 1995). Therefore we have a situation in which the
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achievement. With some license for imagination, the creative arts seemingly support the existence of a rela-
author adopts thefractal metaphor to explain the "self- tion between mental illness and the extent of creative
similarity" of resultsfound at every level of analysis in achievement and, in the case of the investigative pro-
a prior study of more than 1,000 eminent persons and fessions, it does not. How do we explain this?
a new exploratory study on 137 well-known visual
artists. These results show that regardless of scale, the
same pattern exists between mental disturbances and The Arts Versus the Sciences
creative expression. Persons inprofessions that require
more logical, objective, and formal forms of expression The answer to this puzzle, naturally, has to do with
tend be more emotionally stable than those in profes- the nature of these professions and their criteria for
sions that require more intuitive, subjective, and emo- creative expression (Ludwig, 1995). In the creative arts,
tiveforms. This same pattern even applies,for example, for example, what matters most is the person's personal
when we focus on the visual arts and compare persons vision of the world, one that gives insight into human
using d~fferentartistic styles. These results, in their experience and offers new ways to appreciate it. With
entirety, suggest that a powe f i l relation exists between this expectation, artists, writers, and composers draw
the presence or absence of mental illness and particular on their personal conflicts or drug-induced experiences
forms of creative expression both between and within to offer people new ways of seeing nature and interpret-
the sciences and the arts. ing human experience. Even the insights gleaned from
psychoses may help people understand the irrationali-
Here is the basic paradox: We know that no appreciable ties of their existence. Creative artists, then, focus on
differences exist between eminent members of the arts and draw inspiration from the personal and subjective,
and the sciences with respect to the originality and the world of meaning and significance, rather than that
magnitude of their creative achievements (Ludwig, of knowledge and fact.
1992b). We also know that several recent studies, in- What is advantageous for the creative artists is usu-
cluding my own, have documented exceptionally high ally disadvantageous for scientists and academicians.
rates of mental illness among creative artists (An- Insights gained from psychotic, neurotic, or chemically
dreasen, 1987; Jamison, 1993; Ludwig, 1992a, 1994, induced experiences are not acceptable to the scientific
1995; Post, 1994, 1996; Richards, 1981). Does this community because they usually violate the fundamen-
mean that creativity and mental illness are related? Not
necessarily. If a true relation exists, then we likewise - -

should expect high rates of mental illness among emi- This article was an invited Address to Division 10 of the American
Psychological Association, Chicago, August 1997.
nent scientists. But this is not the case. As Figure 1
Correspondenceand requestsfor reprints should be sent to Arnold
shows, eminent scientists show much lower lifetime M. Ludwig, Depamnent of Psychiatry, 820 South Limestone, Uni-
rates of mental illness than eminent members of the versity of Kentucky Medical Center, Lexington, KY 40536.0224.

Creativity Research Journal 93


A. M. Ludwig

60%

i"
rr.
4
20%

0%
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GENERAL PWFESSIONS

Figure 1. Lifetime ratesfor any mental disorder.

tal assumptions of science, which rely on predictability, sions, in turn, by defining acceptable modes of creative
replication, and reliability. Objectivity and proof are expression, have a molding influence on them.
more important in science than personal meaning or Now this is where we begin exploring uncharted
aesthetic appeal. ground. So far, we only have distinguished between the
Social responses to the products of science and art creative arts and the sciences in a general way. What
also reveal certain differences between these forms of then should we expect when we examine each of these
creative expression. Science relies more on cumulative broad professional categories separately and in more
achievements. One discovery supplants another, and depth? What bearing does the presence or absence of
only the most recent theories command attention. The mental instability have on the nature of creative expres-
situation is different in the arts, in which there is a sion within both the sciences alone and the arts alone?
timeless quality to beauty and aesthetics. Classical Do scientistsor academicians in more exact fields, such
works endure and are not necessarily displaced by new as mathematics or engineering,show less mental illness
works or schools of art. than those in less precise fields, such as political science
What this suggests is that the kinds of public and or economics? Do architects and composers, who rely
professional expectations about acceptable forms of on more structured forms of creative expression, show
creative expression influence whether mental illness less mental illness than those, such as poets, who rely
may be advantageous or detrimental to career success. on more subjective forms?
In the arts,the emphasis on the subjective is more likely
to attract people who wrestle with their personal de-
mons or, at the least, try to contain them through their
creative activities. In the sciences, the emphasis on the
impersonal and objective is more likely to attract more With ample license for imagination, we can turn to
emotionally stable people who have the capacity to a model in mathematics that seems to be especially
focus on objective problems outside of themselves. suited for dealing with the conceptual chaos surround-
What we see then is a complex interaction between ing the nature of the relation between creativity and
people and their professions. Creative artists and inves- mental illness. Some years ago, Benoit B. Mandelbrot
tigators are drawn to particular professions because of (1988) invented a new form of mathematics, known as
their temperamental suitability for them. These profes- fractal geometry, which applied to certain natural ob-

94 Creativity Research Jountal


Method and Madness in the Arts and Sciences

jects such as seacoasts, snowflakes, rocks, or waves. ral scientists with social scientists on a number of
The term fractal described any of a class of complex measures (Ludwig, 1992a, 1995).' The natural scien-
geometric shapes that commonly exhibited the property tists included, for example, mathematicians,physicists,
of self-similarity. A selj-similar object is one whose inventors, biologists, and physicians; the social scien-
component parts resemble the whole. This reiteration tists included economists, sociologists, philosophers,
of irregular details or patterns occurs at progressively and educators. We may assume that those in the
smaller scales and can, in the case of purely abstract "harder" sciences rely more on mathematical, objec-
entities, continue indefinitely, so that each part of each tive, precise, and impersonal approaches to problems
part, when magnified, will look basically like the object than those in the "softer" sciences. Will this difference
as a whole. In effect, a self-similar object remains in emphasis be reflected in their relative susceptibility
invariant under changes of scale-that is, it has scaling to mental illness? The answer, in brief, is yes. The
symmetry (see Encyclopaedia Britannica On-Line, lifetime prevalence for any form of psychopathology
1997). For example, as we focus on a jagged coastline, was almost twice as high in social scientists (n = 73)
we notice the same jagged patterns at each progressive than in natural scientists (n = 39), 51% compared to
level of magnification, all the way down to the grains 28%,~ ' ( 1 ,N = 112) = 5 . 3 , <
~ .01.
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of rock and sand (Briggs, 1988). Now, what about examination of the creative arts
If Mandelbrot's (1988) notions about irregularly professions at a comparable level of magnification?
shaped objects likewise hold true metaphorically for Even though we have established that the creative arts
any irregularities in the relation between mental illness have a much higher percentage of emotionally dis-
and creative achievement,we should then expect to find turbed persons than the sciences, we should expect,
differences comparable to what we found in our mac- consistent with predictions, that among the various
roscopic comparison between the sciences and the arts creative arts professions, those that require more objec-
as a whole when we progressively turn up our level of tive, rational, and precise modes of expressions should
magnification, so to speak, for any professional catego- have lower percentages of persons with mental prob-
ries. The same pattern should repeat itself whether we lems than those that require more emotive, intuitive, or
focus on the sciences or the arts separately or any imprecise modes. In my prior study, I was able to
professional subcategories within them. Persons in any compare the lifetime rates of various mental distur-
fields of endeavor that require precision, replication, bances among six general creative arts professions:
formality, and objectivity should be more emotionally architectureldesign, visual arts, musical composing,
stable than those in professions that do not; conversely, musical performance, theater, and writing. When we
persons in fields that emphasize subjectivity, meaning, examine these rates in Figure 3, we find that the
and value should be more emotionally unstable than lifetime prevalence for any form of mental disturbance
those in professions that do not. not only varies among the different professions but
appears to increase progressively as we move from
Magnification x 2 more structured, precise professions, such as architec-
ture and design, to more subjective, imprecise ones,
Our immediate task is to test this expectation at such as the visual arts and writing.
progressive levels of magnification beyond the creative
arts and the sciences for which sufficient information
exists to answer the question under investigation. Fig- 'A detailed discussion of methodological, statistical, and concep-
tual issues can be found in my book The Pnce of Greatness (Ludwig,
ure 2 depicts potential comparisons among certain pro-
1995). Participants selected for my study met the following criteria:
fessional groupings at four different levels of magnifi- they had to have (a) a biography written about them and reviewed in
cation. We have already found that at the most general the New York Times Book Review between 1960 and 1990, (b) lived
level, members of the artistic professions show a much at least a portion of their lives in the 20th century, (c) belonged to
higher rate of mental disorders over their lifetimes than Western culture, and (d) achieved prominence rather than notoriety
members of the investigative professions. Let's focus through some form of accomplishment. About three fourths of the
sample of 1,004 individuals-who were found to be highly repre-
next on the investigative professions themselves. In my sentative of eminent persons-were men and one fourth were women.
original study of more than 1,000 eminent persons, Information was gathered over a 10-year period from approximately
representing 18 separate professions, I compared natu- 2,200 biographical sources.

Creativity Research Journal 95


A. M. Ludwig
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Figure 2. Levels of comparison in the arts and the sciences.

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%


Lifetime Rates of Any Mental Disorders

Figure 3. Comparative rates of a n y mental disorder.$.

Let us test this observation about a gradation in forms such as smging, dancing, actrng, and directing;
psychopathology by grouping these six separate crea- and (c) those "expressive" professions that rely on more
tive arts professions according to three broad catego- personal and subjective forms such as the visual and
ries: (a) those "formal" professions that rely on more literary arts. Consistent with the fractal theory, we
mathematical and objective forms of creative expres- should expect to find relatively lower lifetime rates of
sion such as architecture, design, and composing; (b) any mental disturbances in the more formal, objective,
those "performing" professions that rely on more sym- and rational creative arts professions than in the more
bolic, figural, iconic, narrative, and representational expressive, introspective, or subjective ones: Those

96 Creativity Research Journal


Method and Madness in the Arts and Sciences

Table 1. LIfetime Rate of Any Mental Disorder (%) Art Style and Emotional Stability
Profession n %
By now the pattern has become clear. What we found
Formal Artsa 71 58 to be the case in comparing the arts and the sciences as
Performing .4rtsb 117 72 a whole at a macroscopic level happens to be so when
Expressive ArtsC 267 77 we examine certain professions within the arts alone or
Nore: 'Architecture/design, music competition. ?heater (acting, the sciences alone, and then, even more remarkably,
directing), musical performance. 'Literature, visual arts. within certain subprofessions within these professions.
The distinctions between the formal and informal, the
performing arts professions that rely on more narrative objective and subjective, the precise and the imprecise,
or representational elements should display intermedi- and the impersonal and the emotive seem to transcend
ate rates. As the results reveal, this turns out to be the boundaries of professional categories. Therefore,
significantly so: ~ ' ( 2N=455)
, = 1 1 . 3 ,<~.Ol (see Table with any of the professions or subprofessionsor group-
1). ings within these subprofessions we focus on, these
distinctions among the different forms of creative ex-
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Magnification x 3 pression-whether in the arts or sciences-seem re-


lated to the relative likelihood of mental illness.
Let us focus on certain professional groupings fur-
ther. This time we examine an individual creative arts Magnification x 4
profession to see if the same expectations apply. The
literary profession, which lets us distinguish between Now for the real test. If the kind of creative expres-
more formal-rational-objective and more informal- sion associated with certain professions tends to have a
nonrational-subjectiveforms of expression, seems well bearing on the kind and amount of emotional distur-
suited for this purpose. Consistent with fractal theory, bances found among its members, then at very high
we should expect that people who primarily rely on levels of magnification, when we examine subprofes-
forms of literary expression such as poetry-which are sions within subprofessions within subprofessions, we
the most subjective, personalized, and self-revela- should expect that members of certain schools of art
tory-should show higher rates for any mental distur- should show higher rates of mental disturbances than
bances than those who rely on more analytic, logical, members of other schools, depending upon the extent
practical, and objective forms of expression such as to which those schools embrace different expressive
biography, literary criticism, or journalism. Fiction styles. To test this notion, I conducted a pilot study,
writers, who combine these forms of expression, should which necessitated my increasing the number of emi-
show intermediate lifetime rates of mental illness. Al- nent visual artists in my original sample from 70 to 137
though the results are in the predicted direction, they do (121 men and 16 women) by adding artists from Ed-
not attain an acceptable level of statistical significance. ward Lucie-Smith's Lives of the Great Twentieth Cen-
However, highly significantdifferences do exist among tury Artists (1986) who had suitable biographical ma-
these groups in their susceptibility to depression (see terials available on them. To qualify for this study, the
Table 2). participants had to (a) be deceased, (b) have lived some
portion of their lives in the 20th century, and (c) be
noted either in the Encyclopaedia Britannica (1997) or
Table 2. Lifetime Rates of Any Mental Disorder Among
the Dictionary of Art (Turner, 1996).
Writers (%)
The notion that certain forms of psychopathology
Type of Writing may shape the mode of creative expression, although
rarely addressed, is not necessarily new. As early as
Disorder Nonfictions ~iction~ Poetryc about 50 years ago, Rowe (1946) made the anecdotal
Any Problem* 72 77 87 observationthat in agroup of establishedartists, alcohol
Depression** 47 59 77 provided the freedom to paint but impaired the disci-
"n = 64. bn = 180. ' n = 53. pline. All of the moderate drinkers, who also were the
* p = .IS. * * p = .00. best adjusted, were realistic painters. The steady social

Creativity Research Journal 97


A. M. Ludwig

drinkers had a wide range of styles, and the excessive these different categories, we find that the same pre-
drinkers changed their painting styles the most. More dicted pattern of results occurs, X2(2,N = 127) = 9.0,
recently, Schildkraut, Hirshfeld, and Murphy (1994) 6.0, and 9.2 for formal, symbolic, and emotive styles,
reported a seemingly high rate of mental illness in a respectively,~I$05for all analyses).Artistic styles that
group of 15 abstract expressionist artists. Despite these ranked highest in formal elements and lowest in emo-
observations, no studies to date have examined the tive elements tended to be associated with the lowest
potential relation between particular forms of psycho- lifetime rates of mental illness, and those that ranked
pathology and particular artistic styles. lowest or next to lowest on the formal elements and
For the first phase of these exploratory analyses, I highest on the emotive elements tended to be associated
approached two professional artists, who taught at sepa- with the highest rates. Perhaps because of the broadness
rate colleges, and requested that they rate the visual of the symbolic category, a bimodal distribution char-
artists in my sample according to the extent to which acterized the relation between the expression of sym-
their body of work embodied formal (F), symbolic (S), bolic elements and the lifetime rates of mental illness
and emotive (E) elements. Formal elements applied to (see Figure 4).
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visual, structural, compositional, and decorative as- Of course, critlcs may take issue wlth these results,
pects, or some combination thereof; symbolic elements raising legitimate concerns about the representativeness
applied to representational, narrative, iconic, documen- of the sample, the classification of the art styles, the
tary, and symbolic aspects; and emotive elements ap- adequacy of the various biographical sources, the limited
phed to expressionist and emotional aspects. They number of raters, and the reliability of the ratings. Be-
could assign a total of 10 points among these different cause this is a pilot study, I offer no defense against such
but somewhat overlapping categories. For example, criticisms, but these potential inadequacies do not nec-
they might rate a particular artist as F = 3, S = 4, and E essarily detract from the intriguing nature of these ex-
= 3; another artist as F = I, S = 8, and E = I; or another ploratory results. In fact, to compound my scientific
artist as F = 5, S = 3, and E = 2. In this way, each artist's derelictions,I decided to adopt an even more unorthodox
style would be presented by relative proportions of approach to test the robustness of these results. I aban-
these different elemenk2 doned the notion of professional raters entirely and relied
As the next step in my analyses, because paired t tests on authoritative sources such as the Encyclopaedia Bri-
revealed no significant differences between raters for tunnicu (1997), Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia
any of the rankings, I decided to pool both of their (1996), and Lucie-Smith's Lives of the Great Twentieth
ratings into a single combined score for each of the three Century Artists (1986) first to distinguish the major
elements and then rank these scores for each artist 20th-century art movements, and then to identify which
ranging from 1 (lowest) to 3 (highest) to establish the particular movement best characterized the body of any
relative proportion of formal to symbolic to emotive given artist's work. I then grouped these different move-
elements in h ~ or s her work. Cross-tabulation analyses ments under one of three broad categories according to
were then run to compare the rates of psychopathology its predominant emphasis: formal, symbolic, or expres-
in the visual artists who ranked low (1 .O to 1.5), medium sive. Comparable to the prior analyses with the raters.
(2.0), or high (2.5 to 3.0) on each of these dimensions. the formal category involved a major emphasis on v~s-
What about the results? When we examine the life- ual, structural, compositional, or decorative aspects, or
time prevalence of the various psychiatric problems in some combination thereof; the symbolic category in-
volved a major emphasis on narrative, conic, repre-
sentational, and documentary aspects; and the emotive
'TO evaluate the interrater reliability for these pattern values, 1
ranked these scores for each artist ranging category involved a major emphasis on expressionist
- - from 1 (lowest) to 3
(highest)to establish the relative predominance of formal to symbolic aspects. Abstract art, for example, because of its compo-
to expressive elements in his or her work. I then dichotomized these s~tionalemphasis, would be classified as predominantly
ranlungs according to whether they fell above or below the mean formal; social realism or pop art, because of its narrative
ranking for each stylistic element. On these dichotomous rankings, or iconic qualities, as predominantly symbolic; and art
the raters averaged 70% complete agreement (range 68% to 74%),
with kappa values averaging 0.4 (range .34 to .46,p < ,000). (See brut or abstract expressionism as predominantly emo-
Altman, 1991, on the use of Cohen's kappastatistic to assess adequate tive. The Appendix gives a listing of the participants
levels of interrater reliability.) and their assigned stylistic categories.

98 Creativity Research Journal


Method and Madness in the Arts and Sciences
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FORMAL SYMBOLIC EMOTIVE

Figure 4. Lifetime rates of any mental disorder; artistic styles by ranking.

Even with this crude form of categorization, the This, then, completes our analyses. A brief summary
results are dramatic. On almost all measures of psycho- seems in order (see Figure 5). From a macroscopic
pathology, visual artists with expressivelemotivestyles comparison between the creative arts and investigative
have the highest lifetime prevalence of alcoholism,drug professions, we find that similar patterns exist among
use, and depression; those with symboliclnaturalistic professions at each successive level of magnification.
styles the next highest; and those with more formallab- As we focus on the investigative professions, we find a
stract styles the least. The actual percentages are given higher lifetime prevalence of mental illness in social
in Table 3. These differences among the groups become scientists compared to natural scientists. Then, at a
accentuated when we examine the presence of any form comparable level of magnification within the creative
of psychopathology. The lifetime rates are 22% for arts groups, we find that the more expressive profes-
artists with more formal styles compared to 52% for sions, such as the visual arts or writing, have higher
those with more symbolic styles and 75% for those with rates of mental illness than the more formal professions,
more expressive styles. such as architecture, musical composing, and de-
sign-with the more performance-oriented professions
having rates between these extremes. Then, as we ex-
Table 3. Artistic Emphasis and Lifetime Rate of Mental amine further certain of the creative arts professions,
Disorder such as the literary ones, we find that poets, who tend
Emphasis (%)'
to be the most emotive and introspective among all
writers, have much higher rates of psychopathology
Disorder Formal Symbolic Emotive X2 p< than nonfiction writers (e.g., critics,journalists, biogra-
phers), who tend to be the most rational and analytic.
Alcoholism 3 21 36 10.2 ,007
Drugs 0 7 14 5.0 .09
Then, investigating the visual arts even more closely,
Depression 16 36 57 10.7 ,005 we find that a comparable relation holds for stylistic
Mania 3 5 14 3.5 .17 expression. Persons identified with arts movements that
Anxiety 0 10 18 5.6 .06 emphasize more expressive or emotive elements have
Other 6 8 21 4.8 .09 much higher rates of mental illness than those who
Any Form 22 52 75 16.4 ,0003
belong to movements that emphasize more formal and
rational elements.

Creativity Research Journal 99


A. M. Ludwig

Figure 5. Relative lifetime rates ofany mental illness.

emotive forms of expression. Those who are more


emotionally stable are more inclined than those less
What, then, do these observations say about the stable to gravitate toward professions that encourage
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nature of the relation between creativity and mental more rational forms of expression. And this seems to
illness? They say that the relation that exists is not happen relatively at each professional level.
between mental illness and creative expression per se Of course, this fractal metaphor has limitations.
but between the presence or absence of mental illness When we progressively focus on persons engaged in
and particular forms of creative expression.Employing creative activity that is on the more mathematical, ob-
the metaphor of the fractal, we find that as we focus on jective, and formal side rather than the more imprecise,
professions within professions within professions, the subjective, and informal side of the continuum, we can
same patterns that exist at a macroscopic level in com- expect the base rates for psychopathology to get lower
parisons among professional groupings also tend to and lower-requiring, in all likelihood, the examina-
exist at more microscopic levels of analysis. The domi- tion of very large samples to detect statistically signifi-
nant pattern that seems to hold is that the more particular cant effects. Also, on the more personal and expressive
professions rely on mathematical, natural, formal, and side of the continuum, the pervasiveness of the emo-
objective modes of creative expression or problem solv- tional disturbances, perhaps as found in a group of
ing, the lower the prevalence of mental illness in their confessional poets, may obscure the particular ways by
members; the more a profession relies on emotive ele- which they influence creative activity. But at this point,
ments, personal revelations, and subjective forms of these concerns are hypothetical. Obviously, much work
creative expression, the higher the prevalence. In a remains to be done to explore the full implications of
sense, this contrast is reminiscent of Nietzsche's (1954) the fractal metaphor for the full range of creative ex-
distinction in The Birth of Tragedy between the Apol- pression within various professions. We barely have
lonian and Dionysian forms of artistic expression. The begun to scratch the surface. Consistent with the find-
Apollonian tends to emphasize unity, calm, and order, lngs from my past research and this pilot study, we may
and the Dionysian, drunkenness, suffering, and unpre- find that within given professions, such as psychology,
dictability. Both forms may be essential for creativity, clinicians may be more susceptible to mental illness
but they affect its expression in different ways. than researchers. Even closer to home, within the field
What these observations also suggest is that a com- of medicine, persons who enter psychiatry, my own
plex interaction seems to exist between the creative specialty,conceivably may be more emotionally unbal-
individualsand their professions. Individuals appear to anced as a group than those who enter more objective,
be drawn to professions and subprofessions within precise, and impersonal specialties, such as surgery or
these professions and to particular forms of expression pathology. But perhaps that is pushing the fractal meta-
within these subprofessions in which the requirements phor too far.
for creative expression best suit their temperaments and
their particular cognitive styles. Those who are more References
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100 Creativity Research Journal


Method and Madness in the Arts and Sciences

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Appendix: General Categorization of Abstract Expressionism
Art Movements
Representatives: D. Arbus, E. Barlach, M. Beck-
Formal: Abstract, Futurism, mann, W. DeKooning, 0 . Dix, J. Dubuffet, L. Feinin-
Constructivism, Fauvism, Cubism, Op ger, A. Gorky, G. Grosz, H. Hoffman, E. L. Kirschner,
Art, Suprematism, Conceptual Art F. Kline, G. Climate, 0 . Kokoshka, F. Marc, A.
Modigliani, E. Munch, E. Nolde, J. Pascin, J. Polk, A.
Representatives: J. Albers, G. Balla, U. Boccioni, D. Reinhard, M. Rothko, G. Rouault, E. Schiele, C.
Bomberg, C. Brancusi, G. Braque, R. Delaunay, S. Soutine, C. Still, M. Tobey, Wols (A. 0. Schulz).

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