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NEW YORK, Oct 24, 2006 (UPI via COMTEX) -- After U.S. artist William Utermohlen learned in 1995 that he had Alzheimer's disease he chronicled his sickness through his work.
"From that moment on, he began to try to understand it by painting himself," said art history professor and his wife, Patricia Utermohlen.
The Alzheimer's Association is having an exhibit of Utermohlen's self-portraits at the New York Academy of Medicine in Manhattan, The New York Times reported Tuesday.
Utermohlen's wife and doctors have said that sometimes he seemed aware that technical flaws had crept into his works but he could not figure out how to make them better.
Dr. Bruce Miller, who studies artistic creativity in people afflicted with brain diseases, told the Times some patients could still produce wonderful works.
"Alzheimer's affects the right parietal lobe in particular, which is important for visualizing something internally and then putting it onto a canvas," Miller said to the newspaper. "The art becomes more abstract, the images are blurrier and vague, more surrealistic. Sometimes there's use of beautiful, subtle color."
URL: www.upi.com Copyright 2006 by United Press International
