Artist Drawing During LSD Trip

These nine drawings were done by an artist under the influence of LSD, as part of a test conducted by the US government during the 1950’s. The government was keen to learn of any potentially beneficial effects that these new synthetic drugs may have, and how such effects could be used. Their primary hope was to be able to use LSD as a truth serum, using the patient’s altered sense of reality to overcome any conscious guards.

The artist was to be given a dose of LSD 25, and free access to an activity box full of crayons, paints and pencils. His subject throughout is the doctor administering the drugs. The first drawing is done 20 minutes after the patient has received the first dose (50μg). The attending doctor observes that the patient starts drawing with charcoal.

The artist explains “Condition normal , no effect from the drug yet.”

85 minutes after the first dose and 20 minutes after a second dose has been administered (100μg total).  The doctor notes that the patient seems euphoric.

“I can see you clearly, so clearly. This…. you…. it’s all… I’m having a little trouble controlling this pencil. It seems to want to keep going.”

2 hours and 30 minutes after the first dose.  Patient appears very focused on the business of drawing.

“Outlines seem normal, but very vivid. Everything is changing color. My hand must follow the bold sweep of the lines. I feel as if my consciousness is situated in the part of my body that’s now active… my hand… my elbow… my tongue”

2 hours and 32 minutes after first dose.  Patient seems gripped by his pad of paper.

“I’m trying another drawing. The outlines of the model are normal, but now those of my drawing are not. The outline of my hand is going weird too. It’s not a very good drawing is it? I give…I’ll try again…”

2 hours and 35 minutes after first dose.  Patient follows quickly with another drawing.

“I’ll do a drawing in one flourish… without stopping… one line… no break”

Upon completing the drawing the patient starts laughing and then becomes alerted by something on the floor.

2 hours and 45 minutes after first dose.  Patient tries to climb into activity box, and he is generally agitated and responds slowly to the suggestion that he might like to draw some more. He has become largely non-verbal.

“I am… everything is… changed… they’re calling.. your face… interwoven…who is…”  Patient mumbles inaudibly to a tune (sounds like “Thanks for the Memory”).

He changes medium to tempera.

4 hours and 25 minutes after first dose.  Patient retreated to the bunk, spending approximately 2 hours lying, waving his hands in the air. His return to the activity box is sudden and deliberate. He changes his medium to pen and water color.

“This will be the best drawing, like the first one, only better. If I’m not careful, I’ll loose control of my movements, but I won’t, because I know. I know.” (He continues to repeat “I know” over and over.)

Patient makes the last half a dozen strokes of the drawing while running back and forth across the room.

5 hours and 45 minutes after the first dose.  Patient continues to move about the room, intersecting the space in complex variations. It’s an hour and a half before he settles down to draw again; he appears to be over the effects of the drug.  “I can feel my knees again. I think it’s starting to wear off. This is a pretty good drawing, but the pencil is mighty hard to hold. (He is holding a crayon).

8 hours after first dose  Patient sits on bunk bed.He reports the intoxication has worn off, expect for the occasional distorting of faces. We ask for a final drawing, which he performs with little enthusiasm. “I have nothing to say about this last drawing. It is bad and uninteresting. I want to go home now.”

Renaissance Art History

The home of the Renaissance was Italy, with its position of prominence on the Mediterranean Sea.  Italy was the commerce capital between Europe and Eurasia, during this time period, from 1400-1600, and it boasted a large number of wealthy families who were willing to pay for education.  Over all, the Renaissance art movement completely discredited the Middle Ages as being dead both intellectually and artistically, thus rendering the Byzantine, Romanesque, and Gothic style art as being without value.

The Renaissance came from a revival of the Classical ideas, concepts, and knowledge.  What had once been forgotten was once again the focus of society.  It was also found that in Classical times artists enjoyed a much higher level of prestige than they did during the Middle Ages.  Artists wanted to enjoy this status once again.

The Renaissance took place over a long period of time.  Maybe this is an indication of its immense popularity both then and now.  However, the Italian Renaissance can be divided into three distinct periods known as Early, High, and Late respectively.  These stages were preceded by the Gothic art movement, which acted as a bridge between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and was followed by Mannerism, which bridged the gap between the Renaissance and the Baroque.  Mannerism hardly had an effect on the popular arts of the time and was not fit into the already neatly categorized art periods when historians looked back upon the era.

Early Renaissance art took up most of the 15th century and was characterized by inspiration from antiquity.  The movement was focused in Florence, Italy because this local had brought attention upon itself through various conflicts within the church and with its neighbors.  The art form focused on the human body, space, and the laws of proportion when it came to architecture.  The belief was that progress and development were the backbone of the evolution and survival of art.  The primary painter of the time was Masaccio.  His work was religious in nature and his inspiration came not from other painters, but from the sculptor Donatello and the architect Brunelleschi.

High Renaissance art was characterized by creating physical presence, drama, and balance than on the behavior and personality that were the focus of Early Renaissance art.  The major painters of the time were numerous.  There was Leonardo Da Vinci, Donato, Bramante, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Titian.  This period was short lived, lasting from about 1495-1520 and served as a transitional period between Early and Late Renaissance.  However, although brief, the art that flowed from this period was exceptional and some of the most famous artists ever produced work during this time.  After all, these artists had such a command over their talents that they were able to produce any natural effect they desired and they had an intellect that allowed for balance and harmony along with fine detail.

The Late Renaissance began with the sack of Rome in 1527.  Artists had to scramble to relocate throughout Italy, France, and Spain.  This period led to what is now called Mannerism.  Mannerism artists turned to producing paintings of people, often nudes, that were portrayed in strange poses and looking somewhat grotesque while odd themes were used and emotion looked horrifying.  Michelangelo was the only painter from the High Renaissance to make into the Late period.

The Renaissance movement ushered in the use of oil paints.  This was a boon to artists as, due to the slow drying time of oil paints, they could edit their paintings, making adjustments over a period of months.  They could now focus more on the quality of light on their paintings and were also more in tune with the architectural accuracy of the buildings in the background of their work.  Themes centered on Greek and Roman mythology as well as Biblical characters and the Madonna was a pre-eminent figure.  When it came to depictions of the human body, emphasis was often put on the nude form and the perfection of the body.

Another important result of the Renaissance was that painters began to communicate more with poets, essayists, philosophers, and scientists.  The boundaries between these disciplines began to blur and they began to share ideas with one another and recognized one another for the visionaries they truly were.

Over all, the Renaissance produced some of the most well known art ever created in human history.  It was a time of revival, of going back to something form the past that worked and bringing that past into new light.  After more than 500 years we still marvel at the works of artists such as Da Vinci and Michelangelo.  This period was unique in its portrayal of the human body and in its enmeshment of art and science.  It was proof that the old and the new can come together in harmony.

Andy Warhol - Can of Soup

In Andy Warhol’s time, no serious painter would have thought to paint such an ordinary object as a can of soup. But Warhol did. And his fame came from his ability to turn everyday objects into intriguing works of art.

There are contradicting stories published as to who gave Warhol the idea to paint soup cans. The most commonly printed version goes like this. In 1960, his friend Muriel Latow came to visit. During that time Warhol was discouraged with his work. He discovered that he was doing the same kind of modern comic strip art as another local artist Roy Lichtenstein but Roy was more successful. So, he asked Latow, who happened to own an art gallery herself, for advice. She said, “You should paint something that everybody sees everyday…like a can of soup.”

He took her advice. He started making “portraits” of each of the 32 varieties of Campbell’s soups against a white background. “Tomato soup will never be just tomato soup again,” said critic Ivan Karp quoted in Warhol, By David Bourdon.

Over the next two years, he continued to paint a series of Campbell’s soup cans. Sometimes he used stencils and other times he used pencil, ink, crayons, acrylic and oil paints. He painted enormous still lifes or sad-looking soups with torn labels. Often times he multiplied the can image with the silkscreen method. One of the most famous pieces in the series is 100 Cans multiplying Beef Noodle soup 100 times.

His soup series appeared in an art gallery in the summer of 1962. But not everyone appreciated his new approach to modern art. According to Andy Warhol: Pop Art Painter, by Susan Coldman Rubin, a supermarket stacked Campbell’s soup in the window with a sign that read, “the real thing for only 29 cents a can.” He used the public putdown as publicity. He took a photographer to the market and had his picture taken signing the cans of soup. The photo appeared in newspapers everywhere, according to Holy Terror: Andy Warhol Close Up, by Bob Colacello.

He went on to paint other inanimate objects in this artistic phase. He painted dollar bills, Brillo pads and Heinz ketchup boxes, and Coca-Cola bottles. “I just paint things I always thought were beautiful . . . things you use every day and never think about,” said Warhol, quoted in Victor Bockirs’ book The Life and Death of Andy Warhol. He had a way of choosing objects from American culture that have achieved a genuinely iconic status in contemporary civilization. Warhol often multiplied the images over and over on the same canvas creating the idea that his art like the objects themselves were made by a machine. Warhol even once said, “The reason I’m painting this was is that I want to be a machine.”

In 1980, Warhol declared that he wished to be remembered as a soup can, which may very well become the case. Now, his art is celebrated worldwide and shown continually in museums almost always showcasing his Campbell’s representations.

At the end of his career in 1983, The Campbell’s Soup Company hired him to create a new series of paintings of their dry soup mixes.

A reporter once asked him, “Did you ever image when you painted your first soup can, that it would become art?”

“No,” said Andy. “It’s like anything. You just work. If it happens, it happens.”