Edward Adamson

The Medical Superintendent, the psychiatrist Eric Cunningham Dax (1908 - 2008), was impressed by Adamson's rapport at his lectures with the people who were compelled to live at Netherne.

Dax asked him to facilitate a new research art studio at Netherne, to investigate the role of art in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorder - a project maybe of its time.

Edward Adamson (31 May 1911 – 3 February 1996) was a British artist, "the father of Art Therapy in Britain", and the creator of the Adamson Collection.

Edward Adamson was born in 1911 at Sale, near Manchester, in Cheshire.

He had two brothers.

Later his family moved to Tunbridge Wells in Kent.

They were well off, successful in manufacturing.

This gave Adamson some financial independence to achieve all he did during his life.

He received a degree in Fine Art from Bromley School of Art in London (now part of Ravensbourne College).

Subsequently, he trained and qualified as a chiropodist, at his parents' behest as they wanted him to have 'a proper profession', concerned about his livelihood as an artist.

He probably only saw a few patients – though his brass plate is in the Edward Adamson Archive at the Wellcome Library: 'E.J.Adamson.

M.B.A.Ch.

Chiropodist' (a gift from his parents, but never hung).

Dax describes the Sainte-Anne show at as "probably the second most important event in the history of psychiatric art, the first being the collection of pictures by Prinzhorn from Heidelberg and his 1922 publication "The Prinzhorn Collection" (Dax is referring to Prinzhorn's highly influential book, " Artistry of the Mentally Ill: a contribution to the psychology and psychopathology of configuration") One critic wrote, 'The parallels between the works of patients and the art of 20th Century painters - expressionists, surrealists, and certain pure abstract painters - is established without a doubt'.

Then Adamson returned to a career in art, working as a graphic artist at a Fleet Street advertising agency for the rest of the 1930s, while doing his own drawings and paintings, which he exhibited in both London and Paris.

During World War II, he was a conscientious objector, serving as a medical orderly in the Royal Army Medical Corps, the Army happy to have him as a qualified chiropodist.

He became interested in helping long-term hospital patients pass the time.

This project was the post-war continuation of the 1930s research at the Maudsley Hospital on art and psychosis (and mescaline) by the psychiatrists Eric Guttmann (1896–1948), Walter Maclay (1902–1964) and Francis Reitman (1905–1955) – the latter was Head of Clinical Research at Netherne from 1945.

After the War, he volunteered to work with Adrian Hill, an artist who had coined the term "Art Therapy" in 1942 while a patient in tuberculosis sanatoria, teaching drawing and painting to his fellow patients, and, later, to hospitalised soldiers.

At the time Adamson met him, Hill was working with the Red Cross Picture Library to loan and lecture on reproductions of paintings to patients in British hospitals to enhance their recovery.

Adamson was in the group who first brought this programme to a long-stay mental hospital - Netherne Hospital, Surrey – in 1946.

During his early visits to Netherne, Adamson was given several drawings by a man on a locked ward - JJ Beegan - made with the only materials he had, char from burnt matches and toilet paper.

These objects were the first collected by Adamson, and the start of the Adamson Collection.

The research art sessions were run single-handedly by Adamson from 1946 to 1950, and, according to Robertson, 689 people painted with Adamson in this period.

Robertson does not report how many works were created in this period, only referring to

"The number of paintings per patient showed extreme variation. It seemed that the most standard comparison could be attained by confining attention to the first 10 pictures of the 215 patients who had painted at least that number".

It may be reasonable to infer that at least 3000 paintings were created.

By 1948, when he was employed full-time, a studio was built in the hospital grounds for Adamson's own use.

This building was a converted army hut, 48 feet (15 metres) by 16 feet (5 metres), and able to accommodate twenty people 'with comfort'.

From 1948, Adamson also saw, for two hours each morning, a group of women, on a ward of the main hospital, most of whom had the diagnosis of schizophrenia, and who had all lived in Netherne for many years.

In 1950, Dax lectured on and showed paintings from the early Netherne sessions (alongside works from 45 collections, including from five other British mental hospitals) at the influential "International Exhibition of Psychopathological Art", held at the Sainte-Anne Hospital in Paris during the First World Congress of Psychiatry.

Reitman drew heavily on the findings from these art sessions, and used works which are now in the Adamson Collection, for his 1950 book, "Psychotic Art": though Adamson is mentioned in the acknowledgments, Reitman writes little on Adamson's contribution.

Dax left Netherne in 1951 to move to Australia in 1952, taking "a few pictures and tapestries (20, according to Dr Eugen Koh, former Director, Dax Centre) from Netherne shown at the 1950 exhibition [the "International Exhibition of Psychopathological Art"], and these formed the basis of the (Dax) collection", p3.

Dax published his full account of the results in 1953 in "Experimental Studies in Psychiatric Art": Adamson only warranting a single mention by name:

In early 2013, several small ceramics, with '1948' written on their base, were found in storage.

It had not been known Adamson was encouraging people to work with clay at this time.

The people painted in "experimental and reproducible conditions": everyone had identical easels, with the same materials available, and even the same size sheets of paper (22 by 18 inches, 55 cm by 45 cm).

Adamson was to provide only minimal technical advice.

Initially Adamson worked inside the hospital in a committee room with up to forty patients at once, conducting at first two sessions, and, later, four per week.

Another early location was a shower room, chosen by the nursing staff to be easy to clean afterwards.