We have investigated on the interest aroused by both psychiatrists and for the artists, the painting of mental illness and the use of art as therapy in Spain. We have also made a comparative approach to the development of the issue in other European countries and we have analyzed the different theoretical orientations. 

In the Second World War began to use "art therapy" in Anglo-Saxon countries, due to the needs of the long confinement in hospital. Its development as a discipline was aided by the dissemination and popularization of art from "Art and Craft" by W. Morris, Herbert Read's theories on art and education, the influences of the Bauhaus, the emigration of psychoanalysts and the tradition of associationism of British society. 

In Spain, the evolution of art therapy has been different to the rest of Europe. So we as causes of non-institutionalization of art therapy: 
Passive reception of knowledge, not institutionalization of psychoanalysis; little cultural modernization, economic and social development; the Civil War, non-traditional partnership deficit in infrastructure and training, lack of government towards the sector, the conservative approach of the assistance, the prevalence of asylum model and the rivalry between the departments of psychiatry. 

However, despite the difficulties, we wanted to highlight the exceptions: 
The contributions of early Pérez Valdés (1917-1918), G. R. Lafora (1922), Pérez Villamil (1933), the museum's painting Ciempozuelos Psychiatric Hospital, the World Congress of Psychotherapy, 1958 in Barcelona and communications for the art of psychotherapy, the IV World Congress of Psychiatry in 1966 in Madrid and the art exhibit psychopathology; experiences that took place at the university chairs, the conference of the expression of psychopathology (1984.1985) and seminars on painting ......