Artists' final works before they CTB

[persistentvision]

As an artist with a history of suicidal thoughts, I keep coming back to artists who finished a decidedly final piece before CTB.
Thought I'd list em out with some context for each. Let me know any additions you'd recommend!

::: FILM :::
An Elephant Sitting Still (2018) by Hu Bo - The only feature film of Chinese writer/director Hu Bo is a nearly 4-hour masterpiece. After disagreements with his producers on the length of the film, he died in part from the distress of potentially having to compromise his creative vision for this film. Despite being a film that deals heavily in misery, I still consider it a very hopeful movie, and it might be my favorite movie now.

Scénarios (2024) by Jean-Luc Godard - Only now seeing its posthumous debut, so not easy to watch quite yet. This was completed the day before the filmmaker CTB, apparently a uniquely mixed media work, excited to watch it eventually.

::: MUSIC (recorded, not live) :::
Pink Moon (1969) by Nick Drake - While he did discuss the prospect of recording a fourth album while he was still alive, he ultimately CTB before that could be seen to fruition. While previous albums had entire orchestral arrangements, every song on this album is restricted to in-the-moment recordings of a then-reclusive Nick Drake singing as he plays his nylon-string acoustic, the sole exception of one piano added to the first song on the album. The result is a folk masterpiece, it's my fav album to listen to in the Winter.

"Suicide Machine" (2003) by Elliott Smith - Last song he ever recorded, ultimately an outtake of the posthumously released From A Basement on the Hill

How Sad, How Lovely (2009) by Connie Converse - This collection was recorded 2 decades before her 1974 disappearance (presumed CTB), but also sound 20 years ahead of its time as far as folk goes. She left a series of personally touching notes in her home in the days following her 50th birthday, and was never seen again. "So let me go, please; and please accept my thanks for those happy times...I am in everyone's debt."

At The Cut (2009) by Vic Chesnutt - Chesnutt spent his whole career in a wheelchair from a 1983 car accident that left him partially paralyzed. Despite only having limited use of his hands, he was nevertheless one of the great folk songwriters to ever grace the Earth. He did record one more album after this called Skitter on Take-Off, but it doesn't feel as conclusive to me as At The Cut (let alone with as star-studded an ensemble as he brought in for ATC)

Purple Mountains (2019) by Purple Mountains - David Berman makes his triumphant return to music a whole decade after the breakup of his former band Silver Jews, then CTB 2 months after dropping the album. Indie rock full of gallows humor, and lots of songs about learning to love yourself through it all. He had planned to tour on the album to get out of credit card debt; I guess he found another way out of it.

Also...
• Adrian Borland - The Last Days of the Rain Machine (2000)
• Sparklehorse - Bird Machine (2023)

::: POETRY :::
Edge (1962) by Sylvia Plath - No comment necessary tbh

::: STAGE PLAY :::
4.48 Psychosis (1999) by Sarah Kane - Kane was known for incendiary plays that deal with the intrinsic and extrinsic violence of love. This final play was her most abstract, featuring no stage directions and no named characters. Much of it is bitter and agonized, I even wonder if she would still be a she if she were alive today, given how often this play alludes to dysphoria. Lots of quotes that cut DEEP.

::: PAINTINGS :::
(there's way more of these so peep hyperlinks for context)
"Une Famille Dans La Desolation" (1821) by Constance Mayer
"Tree Roots" (1890) by Vincent Van Gogh
"Nude Self-Portrait With Palette" (1908) by Richard Gerstl
"Zebra and Parachute" (1930) by Christopher Wood
Last Painting (1948) by Arshile Gorky
"Le Concert" (1955) by Nicolas de Stael
"Composition: The Death of James Dean" (1957) by John Minton
"Untitled (Black On Grey)" (1970) by Mark Rothko

 

[no!tres.]

 

[scottchy]

I've been looking up and reading suicide note from famous people.
There's something poetic about the last words a person writes.
I find it quite beautiful

 

[Forever Sleep]

I find this really interesting too. Like when people say they could tell in their last works. Not too convinced myself. Sometimes it's more suggestive than others I guess.

Out of interest- do you think Van Gogh did kill himself? He was my Art teachers favourite Artist, so I've always had a soft spot for him. I've heard rumours that it may have been manslaughter by a couple of boys. It does sound kind of compelling.... What do you think? This summarises some of the arguments against it being suicide:

Van Gogh did not kill himself, authors claim

Vincent van Gogh did not kill himself but was shot accidentally by two teenage boys he knew, the authors of new biography claim.

www.bbc.com

 

[persistentvision]

I've been looking up and reading suicide note from famous people.
There's something poetic about the last words a person writes.
I find it quite beautiful

Suicide notes are one thing, but I find these works compelling because you see them still applying themselves to their craft, and seeing the fruits of that. It has more nuance to me with regards to how they *lived*, and what beauty they were parting with in their decision to CTB.