10 Madnesses

10 Madnesses by Fiona Tan

This beautifully-produced hardback charts the artist Fiona Tan's quest to discover all she can about the early nineteenth-century 'monomaniac' patients whose portraits were painted by Theodore Gericault.

Five Portraits of the Insane by the nineteenth century French artist Théodore Géricault are said to be all that remain of originally ten commissioned portraits of insane patients. Each painting depicts a particular mental condition, a so-called monomania including a kleptomaniac, a woman mad with envy, a child kidnapper. Almost nothing is known about these portraits, but they raise a multitude of questions. Who are these people? In what way are they insane? What and where are the five missing madnesses? Intrigued and inspired by an absence, Tan decides to go in search of them. Pairing personal impressions with formal analysis and archival research, the essay ventures far beyond the boundaries of art history.

Written by Fiona Tan during a fellowship as artist-in-residence at the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles.

Watch 10 Madnesses being discussed in five short videos.

Hardback, Roma Publications, 2018
120 pages, 115x185mm
ISBN: 9789492811158