Ian Breakwell (26 May 1943 – 14 October 2005) was a British artist, active as a diarist, a draughtsman, a film-maker, a painter, a photographer and a print-maker.
From 1961 to 1965 he attended the Derby College of Art, and then moved to London.
[1] Breakwell was part of the Artist Placement Group in the 1970s, and was for a time placed in the Department of Health and Social Security.
[1] He was sent to work in the psychiatric hospitals of Broadmoor in Berkshire and Rampton in Nottinghamshire; his film The Institution, made in 1978 with Kevin Coyne, is based on these experiences.
[1] The Tate Archive holds a collection of his personal papers, correspondence, photographs and notebooks[3] including documentation of 'The Institution' performances with Kevin Coyne.