Pursued by Demons: Creativity and Suicide

The dominant themes of modern art are gloom, depression, torment, loneliness, self-doubt, hypersensitivity, loss of identity and estrangement from the community. Avant-garde painters have always been antagonistic to conventional society. They defied traditional aesthetic norms, yet expected people to buy works they neither understood nor admired. Public hostility and contempt were often blamed for their tragic destinies. But this analysis of the lives of Jules Pascin, Arshile Gorky, Nicolas de Staël and Mark Rothko reveals that these four artists committed suicide not only to escape from pain but also to make a deliberate sacrifice for art.