So... he's one of the first furries? (not counting religious worshipers) I actually like his art though, followed link at the bottom. Too sleepy to read right now though -^-

Thanks for sharing, sir!

There's at least one theory that his more "wild" art wasn't due to his schizophrenia, but to him being able to experiment in style while being hospitalized without being forced to draw his more conventional drawings.

That makes a lot of sense. As stated in the wiki, his drawing skill didn't diminish as the illness increased, like it would with other schizophrenic artists.

It's funny, 'cause I heard about this guy in college twice, once in a psychology class and once in an art history class. They sorta had two different people invented.

In psychology class, this guy was literally the textbook example of some specific sort of neuro-chemical disorder in which the same rigid little brain hobgoblins that got him diagnosed unfit for manual labor also forced him to understand the universe in a weird, stressed out new visual language. THAT was why his cats sort of explode with color. The moral of Louis Wain was that even creative types are helpless passengers to their brainmeat's preferred information systems.

In the art history class, he was of a lapsing convert between the realistic and interpretative illustration tropes, a complete person with one foot in either side of the oh-so-important realisism vs. abstraction dichotomy. The moral of Louis Wain was that artists could change their mind on which end of the narrow two way tunnel they wanna stand on, the way republicans and democrats sometimes turn into each other. Also they say that if you start with a realistic foundation, it makes your abstract work a little better in the end (And this is one of the only points I can agree on, even his exploded cats had nice proportions, textures and poses).


Personally though, I think the guy just liked to draw awesome cats, and he preferred WEIRD CATS later in life as he got weirder himself. And eugh if you're a private sort of person like he was, people will read more into the details of your art, desperate to understand you better. If you ever achieve any sort of celebrity without taking many interviews, you will get stuffed in a series of stupid boxes by your confused fans.

It's interesting- and disturbing- to hear how the story of his life and work was distorted by history and conjecture. If I ever reach any sort of success with my endeavors, it'll be through a pen name.

the first time i read about him was on an article about schizophrenia in art. but i already saw his drawings as covers of Current93 albums, wich was and still is one of my favorite bands!