Healthy

Several weeks ago Wed about a King's College London study on the physical effects of looking at art. Fifty subjects viewed paintings by Gauguin, Manet and Van Gogh for twenty minutes. Half the group saw the originals; the rest were shown replicas.

Interestingly, in the group that looked at the real art, the stress hormone cortisol dropped by an average of twenty-two percent. In the control group that looked at the replicas, it dropped by eight percent. Moreover, in the real-art viewers, pro-inflammatory cytokines decreased by twenty-eight percent, while they remained the same in the control group. It seems that real art is calming and thus good for the body. According to the researchers, this, combined with the reduction in stress hormones, could lead to health improvements in many areas, from anxiety and depression to diabetes and heart disease.

In the group that looked at the real art, the stress hormone dropped by an average of twenty-two percent

The positive effect of looking at art, will apply to many artistic expressions, including contemporary ones. Of importance seems to be the fact that these are the original works of art. Those in which the energy of the creator is in and can still be detected, I imagine. Whether artists become healthier by making their art is not known. That is not necessarily the case. To stay with the artists viewed in the trial: it is widely known that Van Gogh was in poor health, and Manet and Gaugin also struggled with serious health problems.

Whether making their art makes the artists healthier is not known

On the subject of artists' health, I came across another interesting post. After a long-term trial in Ireland of a basic income for visual artists and musicians, it was found that a weekly payment of a modest income (325 euros) had a positive effect on the mental health of the participating subjects. The results were simple: the artists and musicians worried less about money and were therefore able to concentrate better, increasing their productivity and thus the quality of their work.

a modest basic income was found to have had a positive effect on the mental health of artists

Gee. So artists and musicians who receive a basic income become healthier, create more and better work, and from that work the audience in turn becomes healthier. No losers. The taxpayer loses nothing, either. In fact, in the end it turned out that for every euro the Irish government spent on basic income, society got back €1.39. That calculation does not include the expected reduction in healthcare costs due to greater well-being of both creators and viewers.