Mental Health and Art: Narcissism

"Narcissistic personality disorder" is a mental condition in which people have an inflated sense of their own significance, a desire for excessive attention and admiration, and a lack of empathy for others. This particular mental condition is highly interconnected with the art world. Yi Zhou claims that artists who are narcissistic, have higher prices and recognition in the art world and she supports her claim by investigating artists' signature sizes. Apparently, in psychology, there is a certain correlation between signature size and self-regard. Zhou measures over hundreds of signatures and compares the results to historical auction price data, numbers of museum shows, and "artistic reputation". She also looks at the number of self-portraits done by the artist and the frequency of the use of the words "I" and "me" in published interviews. In the analysis of hundreds of pre and post-war artworks, Zhou found that narcissistic artists' work sold 25% more than their peers. 


Pablo Picasso, Les Femmes D'alger, 1955, oil on canvas
(sold for $179 million in 2015)

"God is really an artist, like me..."   Pablo Picasso



Cindy Sherman, Untitled #96, 1981, chromogenic print
(became the second most expensive photograph ever sold)

Cindy Sherman could be considered the art world's selfie queen.


Let us discuss the more recent cases of narcissistic behavior. American sociologist Howard Becker defines modern artists with this sentence: "If you do art, you must be an artist. Conversely, if you are an artist, what you do must be art." This sentence can be the summary of today's art and artist in general since today's culture has peaked the search for self-love in all the wrong places. The rise of social networking increased the incidences of narcissism like ever before. There are so many derivative works done by artists who add almost nothing new to the art world but just trying to advertise themselves. Instagram, which is largely a selfie-sharing app, has become a place where artists promote, sell and make art. An indication of that can be Molly Soda, a 26-year-old performance artist who is posting naked selfies as an art form since she was 16 and she considers what she does as "a super positive affirmation of self-love". 




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