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Dec 2022
47m 13s

Louis Wain’s Cat Pictures

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About this episode

Louis Wain’s cat-centric art was extremely popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and some of his later work became an inspiration for the psychedelic movement of the 1960s.

Research:

  • Beetles, Chris. “Louis Wain’s Cats.” Chris Beetles and Canongate Books. 2011, 2021.
  • Benge-Abbott, Bryony. “Louis Wain’s Cryptic Cats.” Wellcome Collection. 5/19/2020. https://wellcomecollection.org/articles/Xrqh1BAAACMAhHcl
  • Bethlem Museum of the Mind. “Louis Wain (1860-1939).” https://museumofthemind.org.uk/collections/gallery/artists/louis-william-wain
  • Brill, Marta Wiktoria. “Louis Wain and His Weird Cats.” Daily Art Magazine. 8/8/2022. https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/louis-wain-cats/
  • Dale, Rodney. “Louis Wain: The Man Who Drew Cats.” Michael O’Mara Books Limited. 1968, 1991.
  • Damiani, Stefano. “The Cats of Louis Wain: A Thousand Ways to Draw One’s Mind.” American Journal of Psychiatry 175:4, April 2018.
  • Henry Boxer Gallery. “Louis Wain.” https://www.outsiderart.co.uk/artists/louis-wain
  • Hibbard, Ruth. “‘Paw-some’ cat drawings by Louis Wain.” Victoria and Albert Museum. 1/18/2022. https://www.vam.ac.uk/blog/museum-life/paw-some-cat-drawings-by-louis-wain
  • Illustration Chronicles. “Cute Cats and Psychedelia: The Tragic Life of Louis Wain.” https://illustrationchronicles.com/cute-cats-and-psychedelia-the-tragic-life-of-louis-wain
  • Jablensky, Assen. “The diagnostic concept of schizophrenia: its history, evolution, and future prospects.” Dialogues in clinical neuroscience vol. 12,3 (2010): 271-87. doi:10.31887/DCNS.2010.12.3/ajablensky
  • McGennis, Aidan. “Louis Wain: his life, his art and his mental Illness.” Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine. Volume 16 Issue 1.
  • Milton, Joseph. “How a mental disorder opened up an invisible world of colour and pattern.” Scientific American. 12/22/2011. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/creatology/how-a-mental-disorder-opened-up-an-invisible-world-of-colour-and-pattern/
  • Parkin, Michael. "Wain, Louis William (1860–1939), artist." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Date of access 2 Nov. 2022, https://proxy.bostonathenaeum.org:2261/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-36677
  • Stokes, Tim. “Louis Wain: The Artist Who Changed How We Think About Cats.” BBC. 12/28/2021. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-59518847
  • Tambling, Kirsten. "The man who drew cats: Louis Wain's series of 'Kaleidoscope Cats' are often regarded as the acme of 'asylum art', but the tendency to pathologise his drawings may obscure what makes them so arresting and technically original." Apollo, vol. 194, no. 702, Nov. 2021, pp. 34+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A689978465/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=fe018abc. Accessed 1 Nov. 2022.
  • Tambling, Kirsten. “Louis Wain, the man who drew cats.” Apollo Magazine. 12/15/2021. https://www.apollo-magazine.com/louis-wain-the-man-who-drew-cats/
  • Tassell, Nige. “Louis Wain: the cat-loving artist who forever changed the way that we see our feline friends.” History Extra. 3/2/2022. https://www.historyextra.com/period/modern/louis-wain-cat-artist-caricature-mental-health-benedict-cumberbatch/
  • The Expositor. “Cabbages and Kings By the Walrus.” 7/29/1939. https://www.newspapers.com/image/733377488/?terms=Louis%20Wain&match=1
  • Holcombe, A.N. “The Telephone in Great Britain.” : The Quarterly Journal of Economics , Nov., 1906, Vol. 21, No. 1 (Nov., 1906). https://www.jstor.org/stable/1883751

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