William Charles Utermohlen (December 5, 1933 – March 21, 2007) was an American figurative artist known for his late-period self-portraits completed after his diagnosis of probable Alzheimer's disease.

After diagnosis he began a series of self-portraits influenced by both the figurative painter Francis Bacon and cinematographers from the German Expressionism movement.

His early work consists of separate six cycles, each of which covers themes and subject matter ranging from mythology to war to nudes.

William Charles Utermohlen was born on December 5, 1933,[1][2] in Southern Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as the only child of first-generation German immigrants.

[5] Utermohlen earned a scholarship at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) in 1951 where he studied under the realist artist Walter Stuempfig.

[8] Shortly after, he studied in Europe, traveling through Italy, France and Spain where he was heavily influenced by the works of the Proto-Renaissance artist Giotto and the French Baroque painter Nicolas Poussin.

[22][23] His early works are mostly figurative,[24] and described by the medical academic James M. Stubenrauch as "exuberant, at times surrealistic" style of expressionism.

[26] During this period, Utermohlen did not explain his work or discuss them with Redmond as she was an art historian, and he feared she would interfere with his creative progress.

"[28] She explained in a Studio 360 interview that Utermohlen was "puzzled and worried, because he couldn't work in [a] totally abstract way", as he considered the figure "incredibly important".

[29] His art is mainly centered on portraiture, although Utermohlen has also made murals at the Royal Free Hospital and at the Liberal Jewish Synagogue.

They consist of a series of disoriented and wounded soldiers,[47] and are described by his art dealer Chris Boicos as a seeming premonition of the artist's dementia diagnosis made in the following year.

[50] She feared Utermohlen was depressed and sought medical advice,[51] where he was subsequently diagnosed with probable Alzheimer's disease[52] in August 1995 at the age of 61.

[7] When his neuropsychologist Sebastian Crutch visited Utermohlen in late 1999, he described the painting as depicting the artist trying to hang on and avoid being "swept out" of the open window above.

[68] His series of self-portraits became increasingly abstract as his dementia progressed,[69] which according to the critic Anjan Chatterjee, describe "haunting psychological self-expressions".

[75] Crutch et al speculate that the change in his painting style may have been caused by "deterioration in [his] ability to process perceptual and spatial information",[76] which Tobi Zausner states didn't impact Utermohlen's memory massively in the early stages of the disease.

[77] Dr. Bruce Miller says that this might have made Utermohlen's earlier self-portraits more abstract and surreal, citing the cause of this to be the right parietal lobe, which they call "the dominant hemisphere for artistry".

[80] Xi Hsu states that the vibrant pop art like colors and "traditional draughtsmanship" of Utermohlen's earlier works were "spared [from] the effects of dementia"; they are also present in the self-portraits.

[63] Associated Press's Joann Loviglio describes Utermohlen's late self-portraits as the "afterimages of a creative and talented spirit whose identity appears to have vanished".

"[107] Crutch et al from The Lancet noted how divisions of the face near the jawline in Utermohlen's self-portraits were similar to Picasso's works such as The Weeping Woman.

[111] The writer continues that Utermohlen's portraits offer "a window into the artist's" decline...[and are] "also heartbreaking in that they expose[d] a mind trying against hope to understand itself despite deterioration".

[114] In the case report, the Crutch et al noted that the evident change in artistic ability was "indicative of a process above and beyond normal aging".

[122] A 2013 article in The Lancet compared his work to self-portraits by Rembrandt, and described Utermohlen as "struggling to preserve his self against age" while also fighting against "inexorable neurodegeneration".

[126] Irvin notes that their "formal and aesthetic features", the correlation with Utermohlen's earlier works and their "aptness to interpretation", is what makes the portraits "jointly sufficient to connect them in the right way with past art, [regardless of] the absence of an express[ed] intention about how they are to be regarded".

[127] Alan E. H. Emery believes that the progressive effects of dementia give neurologists "an opportunity to study how the disease affects an artist's work over time", and provide a unique method of studying detailed change in perception, and how it can be linked to localized brain functions, concluding by stating that documenting changes over time with neuroimaging could lead to better understanding of dementia.

[128] Medical anthropologist Margaret Lock states that the portraits indicate that "there may be many avenues [...] that suggest ways in which humans can be protected from the ravages of this condition by means of lifelong social and cultural activities".

[131] Andrew Purcell stated that Utermohlen's artwork provided viewers with a "unique glimpse into the effects of a declining brain".

[132] Researchers at Illinois Wesleyan University stated that Utermohlen's self portraits show that "people with AD can have a strong voice through images".

[133] The existence of his earlier self-portraits (which allow viewers to create a time-lapse of his mental decline) and the idea that his works give a rare view into the mind of an Alzheimer's patient contributed to his growing popularity.

It was reviewed by Frazzetto, who wrote: "At a time when terrorism, forced migration, ideologies of hatred, and the risk of war put our civilization and mental well-being to test, a creative reflection on the science and experience of trauma is obliging.

"[82] Other exhibitions include a retrospective at the GV Art gallery in London in 2012,[144][g] an exhibition at the Chicago Cultural Center in 2008 sponsored by Myriad Pharmaceuticals,[146][147] and The Later Works of William Utermohlen, shown at the New York Academy of Medicine in 2006, which marked the centenary of Alois Alzheimer first discovering the disease;[148] it was open free to the public.