Dementia: The Self-Portraits of William Utermohlen
When he learned in 1995 that he had Alzheimer’s disease, William Utermohlen, an American artist living in London, immediately began work on an ambitious series of self-portraits.
Blue Skies, 1995, oil on canvas, 152x122cm
The first self-portrait completed after William Utermohlen’s diagnosis shows a man whose world has become untethered. The artist clings to a table as if to anchor himself within a flattened, featureless space.
About the art work: When he learned in 1995 that he had Alzheimer’s disease, William Utermohlen, an American artist living in London, immediately began work on an ambitious series of self-portraits. The artist pursued this project over an eight-year period, adapting his style to the growing limitations of his perception and motor skills and creating images that powerfully documented his experience of his illness. The resulting body of work serves as a unique artistic, medical, and personal record of one man’s struggle with dementia.
Return to the main feature, “The Dementia Plague” by Stephen S. Hall.
4 comments. Share your thoughts » 0 comments about this story. Start the discussion »