"artists do their best works when drunk", can you name any alcohic artists?

Question

i am doing an investigation into artists, it is often said (i dont know who originally quoted it though) that artists do their best work when drunk, e.g tracy emin, bob carlos clarke.

does anyone know any artists, photographers or even cooks that are at their most creative when drunk.

at the end of this project i will be getting drunk and taking photographs with my digital camera to see if this thoery applys to me.

any help is appreceited

Answer 1

Jackson Pollock comes to mind.

Answer 2

I once watched a film documentary on Jackson Pollock while he was drip painting and one could see that he was holding a glass of whisky on one hand and dripping paint with the other. Jackson who was a protegee of Thomas Hart Benton, drifted away from the realist style of his mentor and started his 'action' drip paintings. It was while living in lower Manhattan when he became dependent on alchohol and unfortunately it was drunken driving that killed him in the end. Jean Paul Basquiat was the protegee of Andy Warhol who earlier in his life took to the bottle while painting and later when money became more easily accessible moved on to harder stuff like coccaine and heroine. He died of overdose at 27. Alchohol is indeed a social lubricant and could be helpful only to some extent but I doubt if it'll do an artist any good if he/she become enslaved by it in the long run. The great poet Edgar Allan Poe is another classic example of an artistic soul whose poetic license is synonymous to alchoholism. Yanni composed some his beautiful piano pieces while drinking brandy. I'm on my ninth bottle of beer right now while typing these lines. Why do American beer taste like watered-down wee? Hic

Answer 3

Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald were heavy drinkers. Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes author) used heroin. I don't know if you are interested in writer/substance. Edward Manet and Toulouse Latrec spend a LOT of time in bars and saloons. Caravaggio was no stranger to the tavern and Van Gogh and Gaugain drank and painted and fought and drank and painted and fought .

Answer 4

I know LOTS of artists who were big time lushes like Jim Morrison and Judy Garland.... But I have NEVER heard anybody say that an artist's BEST work happened while they were drunk.

Answer 5

I am an artist and lot of my friends are, The rule is , when drunk while the artist might think it is his best work, the rest of the people don't think so.

Answer 6

My vote is "all of them". an artist who has not explored life enought to realize sheets to the wind is the best way to fly is not a true artist. FURTHERMORE (is that 1 or 2 words?) 12 step programs are destroying art for future generations. Think about it- who has chocked on his own vomit or cut off an ear to impress a girl lately? The prissy "Painter of LIGHTS"? I think NOT! I rest my .... (pass the bottle opener please. forget about it, I'll use my teeth) 'burp' ....CASE!

Answer 7

Toulouse Lautrec, Vincent Van Gogh and many others are known to be alcoholics, we don't know if they were drunk while creating...Anyway, it is known that drinking emproves your artistic sight :))

Answer 8

I know that you didn't list authors, but I'll add Edgar Allen Poe.

Answer 9

jim morrison from the doors

Answer 10

I guess the drug addicted ones are not alcholic