When Art and Madness Find it Other

Abstract

The present study treats the relation between art and madness and has the objective to reflect how and why the debate around this discussion was brought up and the interest of artists and researchers from the beginning of the XX century for the artistic production of people as “mentally ill”. Through a brief historic that shows as madness was transformed in mentally ill people, as object of study in psychiatry as a source of renewal and study of vanguards aesthetics of Brazilian modernism. It is emphasized how the debate on art and madness took place simultaneously in Brazil and Europe and prioritized the contributions of Osório and Flávio Cesar de Carvalho in this debate and the dissemination and legitimization of the artistic creation of "mentally illness". The text also addresses the major periods of ferment of the debates about art and madness, over the 20’s to 40’s, and highlights the contributions of the researchers such as Jean Dubuffet, creator of the concept of brutal art.