Religious and spiritual motifs in the art of the patients of Nikkilä Hospital
Abstract
This article focuses on religiousness and spirituality in the art works of psychiatric patients of Nikkilä Hospital, Finland. The pictures analysed here belong to a collection held at the Helsinki City Museum and they were made during the twentieth century. The theoretical frame of the study is a cultural study of mental health. The collection is approached as presenting a specific kind of imagery which has connections not only to the personal history and diagnoses of the patients; their cultural context and hospital environment is also taken into account. The religiousness and spirituality of the Nikkilä collection are also compared with outsider art and examples of art history internationally.
Main Author
Format
Articles
Research article
Published
2021
Series
Subjects
Publication in research information system
Publisher
Donner Institute for Research in Religious and Cultural History
The permanent address of the publication
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:jyu-202103292194Use this for linking
Review status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
1799-3121
DOI
https://doi.org/10.30664/ar.98057
Language
English
Published in
Approaching Religion
Citation
- Kuuva, S. (2021). Religious and spiritual motifs in the art of the patients of Nikkilä Hospital. Approaching Religion, 11(1), 135-155. https://doi.org/10.30664/ar.98057
License
Funder(s)
Finnish Cultural Foundation
Additional information about funding
Kuuva has studied the art of the patients in Finnish psychiatric hospital museums and collections with the support of funding from the Finnish Cultural Foundation and Ella and Georg Ehrnrooth Foundation.
Copyright© 2021 the Authors