In this research paper, I will highlight the development of art therapy as a holistic practice to treating both physical and mental ailments. Through the collection of case studies, narrative essays, analyses, and research from various scholars, authors discussed in this research paper more specifically explore the various connections between the creative-making process, and the healing that occurred through the art therapy processes. The conclusion of this research paper values the cultural and educational practice of the present 21st century art therapy methods by acknowledging the history, process, and key figures that followed the lead of art therapies founder, Adrian Hill.
During his lifetime, Adrian Hill was a prolific British artist, educator, broadcaster, scholar, and therapist. Hill was credited for developing the concept of art therapy and incorporating that concept into the medical field and, later, education curricula. Hill was born in 1895 in Charlton, London and obtained his education through Dulwich College. Adrian Hill was always interested in the arts and passionate about the history of the arts. Hill’s love for the arts would later lead him to attending St. John’s Wood Art School and the Royal College of Art. However, like the passions of many of his contemporaries at that time, Hill’s education soon would come to a halt at the start of World War I.
Adrian Hill was recruited and enlisted with the First Honorable Artillery Company at the start of the First World War; because of Hill’s artistic capabilities, Hill was assigned to Scouting and Sniping Division—where his work involved sketching the disposition of the enemy that was located in front of the trenches. According to Gough (2010) A Terrible Beauty: British Artists in the First World War, Hill’s writing clearly recounts and evokes his role while working for the Scouting and Sniping Division: “I advanced in short rushes, mostly on my hands and knees with my sketching kit dangling round my neck. As I slowly approached, the wood gradually took a more definite shape, and as I crept nearer I saw that what was hidden from our own line, now revealed itself as a cunningly contrived observation post in one of the battered trees” (p.33). By the end, Hill would have over 187 pen and ink detailed depictions of the war. The visions that Hill would experience through the Scouting and Sniping Division would later influence and inspire Hill’s scenes for the Imperial War Museum that had depicted scenes on the western front of World War I.
At the conclusion of World War I, Adrian Hill returned to his studies at the Royal College of Art. From there, Hill was educated in all the traditional styles and technical aspects of art—which would lead him to paint professionally for a living. Hill’s paintings are often classified as a hybrid between surrealism and impressionism through conventional art making methods. Upon graduation from the Royal College of Art, Hill would proceed to teach at both the Hornsey School of Art and the Westminster School of Art. Throughout his professional career, Hill’s paintings were displayed in countless galleries and exhibitions in Britain and internationally.
In 1938, Hill was diagnosed with tuberculosis and remained under treatment at the King Edward VII Sanatorium in Midhurst. While recovering from tuberculosis, Hill spent his idle time drawing objects within his visual field. Through his drawings, Hill felt that the process of creating—of creation—was benefitting his own recovery from tuberculosis. According to documentation, “for Hill, who had discovered the therapeutic benefits of drawing and painting while recovering from tuberculosis, the value of art therapy lay in completely engrossing the mind (as well as fingers). . .[and in] releasing the creative energy of the frequently inhibited patient. . . [enabling] the patient to build up a strong defense against his misfortunes” (Hill, 1948, pg. 103).
In 1939, the King Edward VII Sanatorium invited Hill to teach drawing and painting to other patients as a type of occupational therapy. Hill began by working exclusively with injured soldiers returning from war, but later the program was made available to general civilians as well. Through Hill’s experiences teaching art, he concluded that the practice of creating art was helping patients both mentally and physically by giving them an outlet to relieve (and, perhaps, redirect) their distress.
The research that Hill conducted on his patients diagnosed with tuberculous revealed a link between art therapy and the extension of his patients’ lives. The research found a strong correlation between the therapeutic properties within art and the increase in the mental health of the patient. Alike, Hill’s patients showed that as their mental health increased, there was also a positive and direct increase in their physical health—which in turn extended their lifespan. Hill published his findings in 1945 through his book Art Verse Illness, which explored how artistic and creative practice positively affected the health of patient suffering from chronic illnesses. Within his publication, Hill spoke of, and expanded upon, the concept of art therapy—which he had coined three years earlier.
Not only did Hill value artistic practice, but he recognized health benefits of viewing art. In collaboration with the British Red Cross Society, Hill developed a scheme of hanging artwork up in hospitals to decorate the blank, naked walls of nothingness. According to Susan Hogan’s (2001) Healing art: the history of art therapy, Hill believed that it was necessary for hospitals to display art on the barren hospital walls “. . . so patients would see something and it would bring them into touch with the artist who did it, and it would possibly [inspire them to] want them[selves] to draw and paint” (p. 31). In other words, the unforgiving and the barren representations of nothingness, of ennui, were at once transformed into animated scenes of creative possibility where no such possibility previously existed.
In less than a decade, Hill was able to bring Art Therapy funded programs to over 70 hospitals to treat patients with tuberculosis. Hill worked tirelessly to bring art therapy into hospitals and other institutions through his publications. He believed that the practice of art therapy should become an integral part of the National Health Service to best meet the needs of the medical world. Hill would later be elected President of both the British Association of Art Therapists and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters.
Building on the foundation laid by Hill were six key figures in early history of American art therapy. The six individuals that promoted the development of art therapy in either and/or both the education and medicine fields were: Florence Cane, Ruth Faison Shaw, Edward Adamson, E.M. Lyddiatt, Michael Edwards, and Rita Simon. Extrapolating from Hill’s foundational principles, key figures believed that it was important to use the arts to heal, evolve, and promote a healthy mind, body, and spirit. Each of their scholarly work and publications played an integral role in making expressive-art techniques a global phenomenon and immortalizing the art movement.
Florence Cane pioneered infusing therapeutic techniques into art education. Her experiences working at the Walden School influenced her progressive stance on using expressive art techniques within her curriculum. Cane was progressive in reforming a curriculum that was student-focused and based on embracing the student’s imagination, exploration, self-discovery, and spirituality. According to Stankiewicz’s (2001) article, “Florence Cane encouraged children to create freely by painting from imagination rather than visual models, by visualizing from memory with the eyes closed, by working with the painting upside down, and the painting with the less-dominant hand” (p. 36). In 1951, Florence Cane published a book The Artist in Each of Us which promotes art that focuses on of mind, body, and spirit.
Ruth Faison Shaw was an artist, educator, entrepreneur, and therapist over the span of her lifetime. Shaw was credited for developing the art concept of finger painting and introducing finger painting into the education curriculum. Her curriculum and teaching styles consisted of more experiential and expressive learning techniques. Ruth Faison Shaw believe that “art education should be free from restrictions entered popular conscious largely through finger painting” (Stankiewicz, 2001, p.35). Ruth Faison Shaw published her book, Finger Painting: a Perfect Medium for Self-Expressionism in 1934. Shaw’s publication generated national attention to the concept of finger painting and the genre of expressionism.
Edward Adamson was both a therapist and artist over the span of his lifetime. Adamson experimented and explored the psychological effects that art therapy has on patients of varying ailments. Adamson was the first artist employed by the National Health Service to treat patients within a mental institution by using the method of art therapy. Throughout his career, Adamson was awarded an MBE for his service in mental health, and research contributed to the foundation of art therapy.
E.M. Lyddiatt is well-known for the multiple articles, and publications that focus on the concept of art therapy. The 1971 published book, Spontaneous Painting and Modelling: A Practical Approach in Art Therapy, was used as a guideline for both therapists and educators. Lyddiatt’s works are still used today as a blueprint within the field of Art Therapy.
Over the span of his life time, Michael Edwards was a painter, art therapist, psychologist, and art curator. Edwards learned and practiced as a Jungian teacher and practitioner. Most of the research conducted involved patients of C.G. Jung through therapeutic art concepts. Edward’s publications generated national attention to the concept of art therapy and the beneficial impact for all of civilization.
Rita Simon is known for pioneering art therapy with psychiatric patients in an after care unit. Simon and Hill had experience working together promoting art therapy within the British medical world. Throughout her career, Simon extended art therapy to other hospitals throughout the UK—continuing the vision of Adrian Hill. Simon published a total of two books and 18 paper on art therapy and the research that she had conducted with her psychiatric patients.
The initiation of art therapy was fueled by Adrian Hill in 1942. Through his writings and works, other medical professionals, artists, scholars, and educators gained interest and helped pave the way to making art therapy as prevalent and researched as it is today.
(Note: Above you will find the portrait of Adrian Hill painted on canvas using acrylic paint. The painting depicts Hill later in age and at a time when he was continuing his publications and journey to bring art therapy into a variety of hospitals and medical forums).
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