Migraine and Visual Arts

Richard Benbrook, Art Attack, mixed media, 2002. © 2002 Richard Benbrook

Not everything which looks like a migraine aura - e.g. Pablo Picasso's Cubist paintings - actually must have been inspired by a migraine aura. Considering the neurological evidence available for painters from the history of art, a diagnosis of migraine is likely in some cases (for example Italian painter Giorgio de Chirico, who founded the metaphysical school) and doubtful in others (like the Dutch Post-Impressionist Vincent van Gogh). Luckily for reseachers of Migraine Art, there exists a considerable number of painters, sculptors and film-makers with a self-reported diagnosis of migraine, but the best data can be derived from the study of contemporary visual artists with a definite (or excluded) diagnosis of migraine, as established by their responses to a standardized Migraine Questionnaire (Tom et al., 1994).

References

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Nicola U, Podoll K. L'aura di Giorgio de Chirico. Arte emicranica e pittura metafisica. Mimesis, Milano 2003.
Podoll K, Robinson D. Visual migraine aura as source of artistic inspiration in professional painters. Neurol Psychiat Brain Res 2001; 9: 81-93.
Podoll K, Robinson D, Nicola U. L'ipotesi di un'origine emicranica della pittura di Picasso: una rassegna critica. [The migraine hypothesis on Picasso's paintings: a critical reappraisal. In Italian.] Confinia Cephalalgica 2003; 12: 11-23.
Tom T, Brody M, Valabhji A, Turner L, Molgaard C, Rothrock J. Validation of a new instrument for determining migraine prevalence: the UCSD Migraine Questionnaire. Neurology 1994; 44: 925-928.

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