Autistic artist

An autistic artist should be distinguished from autistic art.

Autistic art refers to art which fits autistic as an adjective, perhaps capturing stereotypes about autistic experience. Autistic artists may or may not do art which could be described as autistic and quite often transcend what people expect a person with autism to express through art.

Nevertheless, art by artists with autism often captures some aspects of the person's autism, be this their eye for detail or movement, their relationship to textures or color, their desire for order or their chaotic sensory experiences. Those interested in autism often look to the works of autistic artists to illuminate autistic experience, particularly as art is such a non-verbal medium.

Artists with autism vary dramatically in their artistic styles and techniques. Some are purely representational, others symbolic. Some are classical in style, others purely abstract and others who defy categorisation.

Among autistic artists are certainly some outsider artists who have grown up in institutions, experienced homelessness or other injustices as a result of a range of autism related differences. Other autistic artists have been trained by mentors qualified in the arts or have completed art degrees at recognised institutions.

Because autism often (but not always) involves overlap with sensory-perceptual conditions, cognitive and information processing challenges, gut and immune disorders or co-morbid mood, anxiety, compulsive disorders or attention deficits, autistic artists are often represented in the wider disability arts realm or among artists with a range of mental health issues.

Among the most well known autistic artists are those described as savant whose art skills appeared to have developed without formal training. But artistic autistic savants have not been limited to representational artists who reproduce photographic quality renderings akin to being 'human cameras'. Autistic savant artists have also included highly expressive abstract and figurative artists. It is also the case that not all renowned autistic artists are savants.

Renowned autistic artists
Among the most well known savant autistic artists in the world, is UKs Stephen Wiltshire. Whilst his highly detailed art is largely representational, he has become increasingly more imaginative and expressive in his works over time. His artistic abilities have extended beyond sketching to painting and music. Stephen was 'discovered' when he already had an exceptionally highly developed skill as an artist. The mentor who discovered him then provided him formal arts training.

Alonzo Clemons and Donna Williams are two of the most well know autistic sculptors, both figurative artists. Alonzo primarily worked, until recently, on animal figures, with recent human figurative works and is known for both his remarkable skill and speed with which he does his sculptures. Donna Williams' figurative sculptures include a life sized bronze the original sculpture for which took her 20 hrs and was the third sculpture she ever did.

Gilles Trehin is a self taught French autistic artist and has recently emerged with equally highly detailed pencil work, largely architectural in style but Gilles represents an imaginary world called Urville through his sketches. He featured in the BBB4 documentary Art Savant; The City Inside My Head.

Jessy Park is a self taught autistic artist whose paintings are quite architectural, most often featuring buildings in very vibrant colors. She features in the book The Seige and has featured in Time Magazine.

Peter Myers is a self taught UK artist with Asperger's who does highly detailed pen work featuring dots, perhaps influenced by Indigenous art. His book of artworks, An Exact Mind was published in 2004.

Mark Rimland is a self taught American with autism whose drawings and paintings are often figurative but quite modernist and again very vibrant. The son of autism pioneer, Bernard Rimland, Mark featured in the documentary Lifting The Fog; A Look Into The Mysteries of Autism.

One of the most extraordinary figurative autistic artist is self taught French artist, Christophe Pillault who excels in capturing movement although he paints only with his fingers. His works have featured in the book Art of the Mind.

Larry Bissonnette is a self taught American autistic artist whose style is largely abstract, very post modern if not Art-Brut in style, often accompanied by lettering. he featured in the documentary My Classic Life As An Artist.

Donna Williams is a self taught Australian autistic author, painter, sculptor, composer and screenwriter who has featured in several TV documentaries. Her usually very vibrant work is largely figurative and whose works, like those of Christophe Pillault and Alonzo Clemons, emphasise movement.

Jonathan Lerman is an autistic artist who primarily draws portraits and quite differently to Donna Williams and Christophe Pillault who focus on movement and posture, Jonathan focuses primarily on facial expression.

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu