War creates craziness - an exhibition in Italy Art Genius Madness

WAR - one of the reasons listed for the madness of many of the artists in this extraordinary exhibition in Siena, Italy Arte, Genio, Follie. This unusual exhibition gives a history of the mentally unstable and how they have been treated over the centuries and the MAGNIFICENT art that they have created during their lifetimes, often spent in mental insitutions, or in isolation.
Throughout the exhibition there was much written about the artists and their lives - the factors that drove them to be considered crazy (and then often used as "experiments" for the odd cures, many times the first time used, often tortuous) were basically things that anyone can go through - deaths, separations, sickness, and often times war.
WAR was one of the factors that these people expressed as something that they were unable to accept, and many of them blamed their insanity on this: war.
Whoever lives in Italy, or is coming to Italy, the show continues until May 25th 2009. I highly suggest it - both for the educational experience and for the beauty of the artwork, the variety of the stories behind each and every artist.
A magnificent exhibition, impossible to ever forget.