Famous Works Of Art With Messed Up Backstories

The French artist and writer Alfred Jarry declared: "The work of art is a stuffed crocodile." Then again, he lived on absinthe and ether and used to cycle around 19th century Paris with his face painted green. Salvador Dalí was similarly self-aware in his eccentricity, such as, when asked whether he used drugs, he claimed: "I don't do drugs. I am drugs!" according to The Dalí Universe. With quotes like these, it's no wonder the stereotype of the mad artist is so common.

But the world of art doesn't just attract unusual characters; it's also filled with strange and messed up stories. Many would argue that this is due to the "intensity" with which arty types lead their lives, mixing hedonism and violence, creativity and self-obsession, artistic vision with personal trauma. That means that more often than not, to know the background to a work of art, to put it in context with knowledge of the circumstances of its composition, means to pull even greater meaning from it. In other cases, such biographical information – about the work itself and the artist who made it – just makes for a damn good story.

And that's what we're here for, great stories attached to art that we perhaps know by sight, but not by its story. You'll never look at these works of art in quite the same way again.

Tracey Emin rose to prominence within a generation of British artists that were used to controversy. As part of the "Young British Artists" collective that exhibited together in the early 1990s, Emin's My Bed was shown alongside such monumental and outrage-baiting work as Damien Hirst's The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, in which Hirst famously pickled a tiger shark in formaldehyde.

It is Emin's work, however, which seems to have attracted the most negative press, as reported in the Guardian. The My Bed installation was a recreation of a chaotic sleeping arrangement, with the bed surrounded by bottles of booze, old cigarette cartons, a pregnancy test, and menstrual stains. Objections ranged from those claiming that anyone could produce such a work, to those saying that the scene was too disgusting to display in public.

But the truth is, the bed is modeled closely on Emin's own – at least, the state her bed had been a few months previous to the art going on display. As The Telegraph notes, Emin had at one point spent days in such a pitiful state, consuming nothing but alcohol and cigarettes, before snapping out of it and getting the idea for the piece. My Bed is really a confessional sculpture, which also goes some way to explaining the strong reactions it provokes.

Frida Kahlo is most famous for her self-portraits, with her distinctively strong monobrow look, and she is now considered a glamorous artistic icon with her work adorning an array of merchandise, and her characteristic art can be found on everything from handbags to throw pillows and even sneakers. Despite her often being considered a symbol of strength for many women, her self-portraiture often shows her at her weakest and most vulnerable.

Kahlo had a tragic early life. According to Biography, she came down with polio at the age of six, which withered her right leg and left her with a pronounced limp in later life. Her recovery was to dominate her childhood and leave her isolated and alone. Later, as a politically-active teenager, she was critically injured in a horrific bus crash, in which she was impaled through her pelvis by one of the bus' iron handrails.

It is believed that it was these misfortunes that left Kahlo unable to have children, and many of her self-portraits in fact depict the artist in bed, surrounded by symbols of her ill health, and also of the miscarriages that she suffered as a result. Famous pieces such as Self-Portrait with Monkeys do not overtly carry such imagery. However, academics such as Museo Dolores Olmedo argue that images of Kahlo's favorite animals serve a melancholy purpose, representing the children that she was never able to have.

Now for some light relief – it's true, the inventor of pop art actually hated the subject of his most famous creation. Messed up or what? Campbell's Soup Cans made Andy Warhol's name when the series of paintings were first shown in Los Angeles in 1962, and regardless of what you think of them in terms of art or ability – though the lack of ability on show is for many part of the point – their impact in the history of 20th Century art is incalculable.

Many sources, such as the Masterworks Fine Art Gallery, suggest that, as Warhol is known throughout his career to have painted what he loved – such as dollar bills and glamorous movie stars – that he must have had a great love for this particular brand of canned soup. Evidence for this is often given by the fact that Warhol claimed to have eaten the soup every day for 20 years.

But according to the biographer Tony Scherman, whose book, Pop, recreates the moment that Warhol and his friends came up with the idea, Warhol hated it. The fact was, his relatively poor upbringing meant that as a child, Warhol was forced to eat the same canned soup every day. In this context, the 32 varieties of Campbell's soup seem like something of a cruel joke at Warhol's own expense.

The work of Rene Magritte is instantly familiar to most of us nowadays thanks to the great number of parodies and pastiches that exist in pop culture – especially of his paintings that feature anonymous men in bowler hats. The Lovers is perhaps not so globally iconic, but the images of faces obscured by light material have become something of a signature of the Belgian surrealist.

But the image is not derived, as with much surrealist art, from the artist's subconscious, but rather has its roots in a real, visceral, and woefully tragic experience from Magritte's youth. According to Artsy, when Magritte was 13, his mother committed suicide by jumping into the Sambre River. When her body was recovered, Magritte witnessed how the material of her nightgown had slipped up over her face, covering it, and creating the image that would recur throughout his work. It is also worth mentioning that Magritte's obsession with hats may have a similar psychological root – before her death, Magritte's mother used to work as a hat-maker.

If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline​ at​ 1-800-273-TALK (8255)​.

Many elements of the life and work of Vincent van Gogh have passed into popular culture since his death. In fact, some of the stranger elements of his biography – such as the fact Van Gogh amputated his own ear – are perhaps as famous to us nowadays as his paintings of sunflowers or his self-portraits. In fact, the incident and his work combine in Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear, which depicts Van Gogh in the days after the event in question.

According to Khan Academy, Van Gogh had been living with his friend and collaborator, the artist Paul Gauguin, for more than two months, and together had been planning on opening a new studio together when their relationship deteriorated. Many say their falling out was the result of a love rivalry, with Van Gogh delivering his ear to the woman in question and telling her to "guard this object with your life." However, accounts of the exact sequence of events vary.

Whatever the case may be, Van Gogh ended up under psychological observation once his ear had been treated, with psychiatrists, concerned for his mental health, considering sending him to an asylum. The self-portrait, then, is Van Gogh's attempt to portray himself in a way that not only shows himself sane, but also that he has been following doctor's advice regarding his recovery, such as keeping and wrapping up warm in a coat and hat.