The healing power of art

What if art could really help us live better and longer?

"One day we may know that there was no art, but only medicine," writes J.M.G. Le Clézio. The WHO report of November 11, 2019, confirms his intuition and states that art can be beneficial for both physical and mental health.

While philosophers were the first to sense the impact of beauty and art on the course of our existence, on our mood, our state of mind, and our health, their theories are now confirmed by neurosciences, which reveal how our brain and, consequently, our body resonate with artistic creation in all its forms.

Today, we know how art sculpts and caresses our brain and proves essential to our lives. A tutor of resilience, it also broadens our vision of the world and transforms us in a process of healing, even rebirth.

Pierre Lemarquis, accompanied by Boris Cyrulnik, who wrote the preface for this essay, invites us to visit an imaginary exhibition to share their experience of healing art, from prehistory to the present day.

From the first works of Lascaux to the Renaissance, from The Origin of the World to Matisse or Picasso, let us be overwhelmed by these masterpieces and healed by Michelangelo, Hieronymus Bosch, Albrecht Dürer, Gustave Courbet, Frida Kahlo, Antoni Tapiès, and many others.

We will also encounter some Navajo Indians, some ingenious madmen, we will plunge into strange altarpieces and other mysterious palaces, we will warm ourselves in the heart of the Sistine Chapel, and we will return to life regenerated and transformed.