An Incomplete List of Artists Who Have Committed Suicide
2015
"Art and revolt will die only with the last man."
-Albert Camus
I am currently doing research into the lives of Artists who have committed suicide. My interest in this subject is to look at the history of artist-suicide as a way to approach writing about Art that relates to End-Of theories postulated by Danto, Kuspit, and - to some degree -McEvilley around the end of the 20th century regarding Hegelian dialectics and the teleological nature of Art after or during the Postmodern era. I am interested in looking at these biographies as a way to cite personal examples of philosophical situationalism in which individuals have compounded the problem of (perhaps?) artistic exhaustion with existential survivalism.
I have also been rather curious to compile a list of Artists who have either quit making work or have walked away from artworld(s) in some form or another - forthcoming. At the center of this research, although something that I do not believe has found a substantial presence thus far in theoretical framework for contemporary art production, is the comparative relationship of cultural as well as historic philosophies of the East and West.
This has been a subject that I have been continually thinking about but have not had an adequate amount of time to develop something as of yet. Now that I am done with school, I will more than likely be posting regularly on the topic - maybe in a blog?
More to come!
A Incomplete List of Artists Who Have Committed Suicide
Henry Alexander (ca. 1860-1894)
American Painter
Drank carbolic acid
Diane Arbus (1923-1971)
American Photograhper
Took a lethal dose of barbiturates and slashed her wrists.
Gerturude Margaret Lowthian (1868-1926)
English architectural historian
OD on sleeping pills in Baghdad.
Léon Bovin (1834-1866)
French watercolorist
Hanged himself from a tree in the forest of Meudon after Parisian dealer rejected his paintings.
Francesco Borromini (1599-1667)
Italian architect
Threw himself on a ceremonial sword, then lingered for another 24 hours.
Rembrandt Bugatti (1884-1916)
Italian sculptor and draftsman
Put on one of his finest suits and gassed himself.
Bupalos and Athenis (active ca. 540-ca. 537 BC)
Greek sculptors
Rumored to have been driven to suicide by the nasty, albeit poetic, written attacks of Hipponax (who apparently didn’t like their sculpture of him.)
Dora Carrington (1893-1932)
English painter and decorative artist
Shot herself a few weeks after the death of her companion, Lytton Strachey.
Adolphe Mouron Cassandre (1901-1968)
French painter, designer and typographer
René Crevel (1900-1935)
French Dada and Surrealist poet
Gassed himself the day before Congress of Writers for the Defense of Culture met in Paris.
Dezsö Czigány (1883-1937)
Hungarian painter
Committed suicide in a psychotic fit, not before killing his family.
Daswanth (active ca. 1560; d. 1584)
Indian miniature painter
Stabbed himself with a dagger.
Edward Dayes (1763-1804)
English painter, draftsman and printmaker
Oscar Domínguez (1906-1957)
Spanish painter and sculptor
Abraham van der Doort (1575/80-1640)
Dutch wax-modeler, drawing-master and administrator
Left this world despondent over the thought that he might have misplaced one of Charles I’s favorite miniatures.
Johann Christoph Erhard (1795-1822)
German painter and printmaker
Robert Fagan (1761-1816)
English painter, archeologist and dealer
Jumped out of a window in Rome.
Jean-Michel Frank (1895-1941)
French designer
Leapt to his death in New York City after having been there for one week; purely coincidental.
Ernst Fries (1801-1833)
German draftsman, painter and lithographer
Slit his wrist.
Bénigne Gagneraux (1756-1795)
French painter and engraver
“Fell” out of a window in Florence.
Richard Gerstl (1883-1908)
Austrian painter and draftsman
Disemboweled himself with a butcher knife after a brief romantic fling with the wife of the composer Arnold Schoenberg.
Mark Gertler (1891-1939)
English painter
Tightly sealed up a room and turned on the gas ring.
Arshile Gorky (1904-1948)
Armenian-born American painter
His studio had burned, his wife had left him, his health was bad and he had no money. He hanged himself.
Alberto Greco (1915-1965)
Argentine painter, sculptor and performance artist
OD on barbiturates. Left notes about how it felt for as long as he could.
Baron Jean-Antoine Gros (1771-1835)
French painter
Drowned himself in the Seine.
Benjamin Robert Haydon (1786-1846)
English painter, teacher and writer
Shot himself, then cut his throat.
Jeanne Hébuterne (1898-1920)
French painter
Pregnant with her second child, she leapt from a third-story window two days after her partner, Amedeo Modigliani, died of tuberculosis.
Ray Johnson (1927-1995)
American painter, collagist and performance artist
Committed “Rayocide” on Friday the 13th by jumping off a Sag Harbor bridge and backstroking away.
Frida Kahlo (1907-1954)
Mexican painter
Scholars agree she OD on painkillers. Coroner’s report states “pulmonary embolism.”
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938)
German painter, printmaker and sculptor
Shot himself after the combination of illness and the termination of his career by the National Socialist Party proved too much.
Norbert Kricke (1922-1984)
German sculptor
Herman Kruyder (1881-1935)
Dutch painter and draftsman
Committed suicide in a psychiatric hospital.
Max Kurzweil (1867-1916)
Austrian painter and printmaker
On leave from his position as war artist in Istria. Travelled to Vienna.
Robert-Jacques-François Lefèvre (1755-1830)
French painter
Wilhelm Lehmbruck (1881-1919)
German sculptor, painter and printmaker
François Lemoyne (1688-1737)
French painter and draftsman
Francesco Lo Savio (1935-1963)
Italian painter and sculptor
Mark Lombardi (1951-2000)
American draftsman
Hanged himself in his Williamsburg, New York studio.
Robert Malaval (1937-1980)
French painter and sculptor
Shot himself in the head.
Alfred Maurer (1868-1932)
American painter
Hanged himself in the doorway of his father's bedroom.
Vladimir Mayakovsky (1893-1930)
Russian poet, playwright and artist
Shot himself.
Constance Mayer (1775-1821)
French painter
Cut her throat with the razor of painter Pierre-Paul Prud'hon, who'd been her teacher and then her lover but was not, apparently, going to be her husband.
Min Yŏng-hwan (1861-1905)
Korean calligrapher and painter
Was so strongly opposed to living under the Protection Treaty being enforced by Japan, that he decided not to.
John Minton (1917-1957)
English painter and illustrator
Took an overdose of Tuinal.
Nero (AD 37-68)
Roman art patron and, yes, emperor
Decided stabbing himself in the neck was preferable to being flogged to death.
Jules Pascin (1885-1930)
American painter, draftsman and printmaker
Hanged himself in his Paris studio, possibly depressed over the reviews of his current show.
Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo (1868-1907)
Italian painter
Hanged himself after the deaths of his wife and son.
Bernard Réquichot (1929-1961)
French painter, collagist and writer
Louis-Léopold Robert (1794-1835)
Swiss painter
Killed himself in Venice, in front of his easel, on the 10th anniversary of his brother's suicide.
Mark Rothko (1903-1970)
American painter
Slit his wrists in his New York studio.
Kay Sage (1898-1963)
American painter and poet
Robert Seymour (1800-1836)
English printmaker and painter
Shot himself in the garden at his home in Islington.
António Soares dos Reis (1847-1889)
Portuguese sculptor, engraver and teacher
Grigory Soroka (1823-1864)
Russian painter and draftsman
Nicolas de Staël (1914-1955)
French painter
Jumped out of his studio window in Antibes.
Karl Stauffer-Bern (1857-1891)
Swiss printmaker, painter, sculptor and poet
Henry Tilson (?1659-1695)
English painter and draftsman
Shot himself through the heart with a pistol over the unrequited love of a wealthy patroness.
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
Dutch painter
Died, two days afterwards, of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest.
Keith Vaughan (1912-1977)
English painter
Chose to overdose, rather than live with bowel cancer, kidney disease and depression.
Watanabe Kazan (1793-1841)
Japanese painter
Committed an honorable suicide after a run in with the Tokugawa shogunate (over its isolationist policies) led to his being under house arrest.
Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz (1895-1939)
Polish writer, art theorist, painter and photographer
When the Second Army invaded Poland, he tied himself to his lover, fed her poison and slit his wrists. She regained consciousness, Him - no.
Emanuel de Witte (1617-1693)
Dutch painter
Said to have drowned himself after his body was discovered in a frozen canal.
Christopher Wood (1901-1930)
English painter
Stepped in front of a train.
Xue Ji (AD 649-713)
Chinese calligrapher and scholar-official
Forced to commit suicide after somehow becoming embroiled in a plot to poison the new emperor.
Original Listing
-Albert Camus
I am currently doing research into the lives of Artists who have committed suicide. My interest in this subject is to look at the history of artist-suicide as a way to approach writing about Art that relates to End-Of theories postulated by Danto, Kuspit, and - to some degree -McEvilley around the end of the 20th century regarding Hegelian dialectics and the teleological nature of Art after or during the Postmodern era. I am interested in looking at these biographies as a way to cite personal examples of philosophical situationalism in which individuals have compounded the problem of (perhaps?) artistic exhaustion with existential survivalism.
I have also been rather curious to compile a list of Artists who have either quit making work or have walked away from artworld(s) in some form or another - forthcoming. At the center of this research, although something that I do not believe has found a substantial presence thus far in theoretical framework for contemporary art production, is the comparative relationship of cultural as well as historic philosophies of the East and West.
This has been a subject that I have been continually thinking about but have not had an adequate amount of time to develop something as of yet. Now that I am done with school, I will more than likely be posting regularly on the topic - maybe in a blog?
More to come!
A Incomplete List of Artists Who Have Committed Suicide
Henry Alexander (ca. 1860-1894)
American Painter
Drank carbolic acid
Diane Arbus (1923-1971)
American Photograhper
Took a lethal dose of barbiturates and slashed her wrists.
Gerturude Margaret Lowthian (1868-1926)
English architectural historian
OD on sleeping pills in Baghdad.
Léon Bovin (1834-1866)
French watercolorist
Hanged himself from a tree in the forest of Meudon after Parisian dealer rejected his paintings.
Francesco Borromini (1599-1667)
Italian architect
Threw himself on a ceremonial sword, then lingered for another 24 hours.
Rembrandt Bugatti (1884-1916)
Italian sculptor and draftsman
Put on one of his finest suits and gassed himself.
Bupalos and Athenis (active ca. 540-ca. 537 BC)
Greek sculptors
Rumored to have been driven to suicide by the nasty, albeit poetic, written attacks of Hipponax (who apparently didn’t like their sculpture of him.)
Dora Carrington (1893-1932)
English painter and decorative artist
Shot herself a few weeks after the death of her companion, Lytton Strachey.
Adolphe Mouron Cassandre (1901-1968)
French painter, designer and typographer
René Crevel (1900-1935)
French Dada and Surrealist poet
Gassed himself the day before Congress of Writers for the Defense of Culture met in Paris.
Dezsö Czigány (1883-1937)
Hungarian painter
Committed suicide in a psychotic fit, not before killing his family.
Daswanth (active ca. 1560; d. 1584)
Indian miniature painter
Stabbed himself with a dagger.
Edward Dayes (1763-1804)
English painter, draftsman and printmaker
Oscar Domínguez (1906-1957)
Spanish painter and sculptor
Abraham van der Doort (1575/80-1640)
Dutch wax-modeler, drawing-master and administrator
Left this world despondent over the thought that he might have misplaced one of Charles I’s favorite miniatures.
Johann Christoph Erhard (1795-1822)
German painter and printmaker
Robert Fagan (1761-1816)
English painter, archeologist and dealer
Jumped out of a window in Rome.
Jean-Michel Frank (1895-1941)
French designer
Leapt to his death in New York City after having been there for one week; purely coincidental.
Ernst Fries (1801-1833)
German draftsman, painter and lithographer
Slit his wrist.
Bénigne Gagneraux (1756-1795)
French painter and engraver
“Fell” out of a window in Florence.
Richard Gerstl (1883-1908)
Austrian painter and draftsman
Disemboweled himself with a butcher knife after a brief romantic fling with the wife of the composer Arnold Schoenberg.
Mark Gertler (1891-1939)
English painter
Tightly sealed up a room and turned on the gas ring.
Arshile Gorky (1904-1948)
Armenian-born American painter
His studio had burned, his wife had left him, his health was bad and he had no money. He hanged himself.
Alberto Greco (1915-1965)
Argentine painter, sculptor and performance artist
OD on barbiturates. Left notes about how it felt for as long as he could.
Baron Jean-Antoine Gros (1771-1835)
French painter
Drowned himself in the Seine.
Benjamin Robert Haydon (1786-1846)
English painter, teacher and writer
Shot himself, then cut his throat.
Jeanne Hébuterne (1898-1920)
French painter
Pregnant with her second child, she leapt from a third-story window two days after her partner, Amedeo Modigliani, died of tuberculosis.
Ray Johnson (1927-1995)
American painter, collagist and performance artist
Committed “Rayocide” on Friday the 13th by jumping off a Sag Harbor bridge and backstroking away.
Frida Kahlo (1907-1954)
Mexican painter
Scholars agree she OD on painkillers. Coroner’s report states “pulmonary embolism.”
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938)
German painter, printmaker and sculptor
Shot himself after the combination of illness and the termination of his career by the National Socialist Party proved too much.
Norbert Kricke (1922-1984)
German sculptor
Herman Kruyder (1881-1935)
Dutch painter and draftsman
Committed suicide in a psychiatric hospital.
Max Kurzweil (1867-1916)
Austrian painter and printmaker
On leave from his position as war artist in Istria. Travelled to Vienna.
Robert-Jacques-François Lefèvre (1755-1830)
French painter
Wilhelm Lehmbruck (1881-1919)
German sculptor, painter and printmaker
François Lemoyne (1688-1737)
French painter and draftsman
Francesco Lo Savio (1935-1963)
Italian painter and sculptor
Mark Lombardi (1951-2000)
American draftsman
Hanged himself in his Williamsburg, New York studio.
Robert Malaval (1937-1980)
French painter and sculptor
Shot himself in the head.
Alfred Maurer (1868-1932)
American painter
Hanged himself in the doorway of his father's bedroom.
Vladimir Mayakovsky (1893-1930)
Russian poet, playwright and artist
Shot himself.
Constance Mayer (1775-1821)
French painter
Cut her throat with the razor of painter Pierre-Paul Prud'hon, who'd been her teacher and then her lover but was not, apparently, going to be her husband.
Min Yŏng-hwan (1861-1905)
Korean calligrapher and painter
Was so strongly opposed to living under the Protection Treaty being enforced by Japan, that he decided not to.
John Minton (1917-1957)
English painter and illustrator
Took an overdose of Tuinal.
Nero (AD 37-68)
Roman art patron and, yes, emperor
Decided stabbing himself in the neck was preferable to being flogged to death.
Jules Pascin (1885-1930)
American painter, draftsman and printmaker
Hanged himself in his Paris studio, possibly depressed over the reviews of his current show.
Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo (1868-1907)
Italian painter
Hanged himself after the deaths of his wife and son.
Bernard Réquichot (1929-1961)
French painter, collagist and writer
Louis-Léopold Robert (1794-1835)
Swiss painter
Killed himself in Venice, in front of his easel, on the 10th anniversary of his brother's suicide.
Mark Rothko (1903-1970)
American painter
Slit his wrists in his New York studio.
Kay Sage (1898-1963)
American painter and poet
Robert Seymour (1800-1836)
English printmaker and painter
Shot himself in the garden at his home in Islington.
António Soares dos Reis (1847-1889)
Portuguese sculptor, engraver and teacher
Grigory Soroka (1823-1864)
Russian painter and draftsman
Nicolas de Staël (1914-1955)
French painter
Jumped out of his studio window in Antibes.
Karl Stauffer-Bern (1857-1891)
Swiss printmaker, painter, sculptor and poet
Henry Tilson (?1659-1695)
English painter and draftsman
Shot himself through the heart with a pistol over the unrequited love of a wealthy patroness.
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
Dutch painter
Died, two days afterwards, of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest.
Keith Vaughan (1912-1977)
English painter
Chose to overdose, rather than live with bowel cancer, kidney disease and depression.
Watanabe Kazan (1793-1841)
Japanese painter
Committed an honorable suicide after a run in with the Tokugawa shogunate (over its isolationist policies) led to his being under house arrest.
Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz (1895-1939)
Polish writer, art theorist, painter and photographer
When the Second Army invaded Poland, he tied himself to his lover, fed her poison and slit his wrists. She regained consciousness, Him - no.
Emanuel de Witte (1617-1693)
Dutch painter
Said to have drowned himself after his body was discovered in a frozen canal.
Christopher Wood (1901-1930)
English painter
Stepped in front of a train.
Xue Ji (AD 649-713)
Chinese calligrapher and scholar-official
Forced to commit suicide after somehow becoming embroiled in a plot to poison the new emperor.
Original Listing
