April 7, World Health Day, was declared by the World Health Organization in 1948, and then this special day is organized to cover a week between April 7-13. Various health-related organizations are held around the world during the designated days. The main purpose here is to draw attention to the issue of health and to create a sensitivity to the issue.
The depiction of health on the axis of art and science
Art and science are intertwined concepts. Both are in the trouble of proof, one is the proof of the feelings and the other is the proof of the thoughts. The artist is after the proof of his inner world, the proof of the observations and experiments of the scientist. A similar impression emerges when we think in the field of health. Leonardo da Vinci offers us the most striking example of this. He may not be a medic, but he made the earliest scientific drawings on human anatomy in an artistic style. He may not be a scientist, but he has brought science and art together. Leonardo is not a mathematician, but he is an artist who tries to prove on the principle of infinity and shows a scientist reflex. A similar situation can be seen in Rembrandt Van Rijn's "Dr. Tulp's Anatomy Lesson", he described the cadaver examination in detail in the medical school. Today, medical painting emerges as a considerable field of study. One of our important values in this regard is Prof. Dr. Ahmet Exam. From a completely opposite point of view, he may not be a painter, but he is a medical painter with his medical identity.
In this article, on the axis of art and health science, a window is opened to the awareness of the concept of health, starting from the identity of an artist. In the window that opens, it will be seen how the disadvantages of artists in terms of health turn into an advantage through art.
Rembrandt Van Rijn, Dr. Tulp's Anatomy Lesson, 1632
Realism is the art movement, social realism. So, what is the reality of the individual who performs the art?
Gustave Courbet is the father of realism movement. Emphasizing for the first time that the artist should be free in all aspects, this painter reflects the naturalness of inclusion of the lower strata of society into art in his works. Courbet is a persistent socialist artist. However, his other message was that the artist should reflect the freedom and realism of his inner world to his works. The insistence on the liberation of the inner worlds received serious response from the Impressionists and created a turning point in Western painting. The impressionist artists of the period had serious problems with their eye health and sense of sight, but the current they were in allowed them to reflect the reality they saw as it was. The most famous artists of the movement were those who reflected what they saw (or could not see) as they were: Claude Monet, Paul Cezanne, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Vincent Van Gogh and Wasily Kandinsky.
Claude Monet, Impression. Sunrise, 1872
So, how did these groundbreaking painters balance health and success?
Actually, the answer to this question is clear as day. It is also awareness, that is, they were actually aware of their own state of health. Monet was a cataract patient. He was aware and had agreed to undergo treatment, but it seemed unclear how long he had had a cataract. When you look at his works, it is obvious to what extent he reflects this discomfort on his art. Cezanne and Renoir are thought to be nearsighted. All three artists were aware of their visual deformations, but they did not give up their art and resigned themselves to their fate. They live with this and, on the contrary, identify the aesthetic understanding of the society with this reality of the artist. On the other hand, the situations in Van Gogh and Kandinsky are associated with neurology rather than vision. Although Van Gogh has different psychotic states, it is known that he is Synesthetic. Kandinsky still has the same neurological condition. Both artists knew about their neurological condition. Van Gogh reflected this awareness in his art and tried to be understood. However, synesthesia is not among the medical discoveries of the period. With serious studies in the 1980s, this situation will be accepted as a variety of intelligence rather than a disease. This situation, which turned into a controllable awareness in Kandinsky, who is also a scientist (legal academic), turned into an advantage and led to the birth of the movement we call abstract art, which we now see even in digital art.
Wassily Kandinsky, The first abstract watercolor, 1910
Awareness and acceptance of health problems is a groundbreaking personal revolution. Isn't that what being healthy is all about?
To tell the truth, the great artists above have taught us that there can be differences in today's plastic arts and even in the visual world. This is an undeniable fact. The sources of their differences come from accepting their own truths. A large part of the society still does not give up making various ascriptions to people with cataracts. especially synesthetic
