Seeing is Healing?
The Visual Arts of Medicine
Through December 3, 2000
Box Gallery and Apse
The history of the relationship
between medicine and its visual components and the way in which cultural
values shape the reading of medical images, is the subject of this intriguing
exhibition organized to coincide with the sesquicentennial of the University
of Michigan Medical School. UM Professors Patricia Simons and Jonathan
Metzl have assembled and interpreted an array of art and artifacts that
challenge the neat divisions between science and art. Also explored
are the ways in which gender and class issues and changing notions of
decorum have influenced the practice of compiling medical information
through direct observation. In the Apse, paintings commissioned by Parke,
Davis and Company from 1949 to 1964 (on loan from Pfizer Inc) document
key events in the history of pharmacy and medicine. These paintings,
widely copied and circulated among medical practitioners during the1950s
and 60s, use many of the conventions found in earlier history painting
in order to influence public perceptions and attitudes about the medical
profession.
Seeing is Healing? The
Visual Arts of Medicine has been made possible by generous support
from the University of Michigan Medical School on the occasion of its
Sesquicentennial anniversary. Additional funding was provided by the
Friends of the Museum of Art.
Anonymous
Flap Anatomy
16th century colored woodcut
Taubman Medical Library, University of Michigan
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