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What’s Wrong with Me? Exhibit at TMA
How human disease has been represented in art through the ages is the subject of the exhibition What’s Wrong with Me? Art and Disease, which opens April 22, 2011, in the Hitchcock Gallery at the Toledo Museum of Art.
The University of Toledo students curating the exhibition are enrolled in an art history class that provides them with hands-on training in the design of art exhibitions. The course is part of a curriculum developed collaboratively by UT and the Museum that prepares students in museum practices.
Visitors in the early weeks of this exhibition will see an “installation in progress” as the students continue their work through the remainder of spring semester. The completed exhibition will remain on view through Aug. 7.
Three themes emerge from the selected works: disease is part of life; isolation and social stigma have accompanied various diseases at different times in human history; and disease can inspire hope, faith and compassion for one another. Thirty-one works of art, including prints, three-dimensional objects and a video, are shown. All but one object are from the Museum’s collection.
Some of the artists have had first-hand experience with disease, and their works express emotions such as anger, grief, compassion and hope resulting from their encounters with illness.
Sterbezimmer (The Death Chamber), an 1896 print by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch (1863–1944), was created after the artist’s sister died from consumption, or what now is known as tuberculosis.
A series of woodcuts by German artist Käthe Kollwitz (1867–1945) relates to World War I and World War II. Kollwitz lost two sons in battle. Her work Krieg (War): The Parents relates to everyone’s losses through war.
The Good Samaritan, an 1861 print by Rodolphe Bresdin (French, 1822–1885), is a reminder of the strength of human compassion.
Art relating to disease can be found from every period and reflects common beliefs of those times. For instance, bloodletting was prescribed when people believed illnesses were caused by one’s body being “out of balance.” Bloodletting was thought to remedy the imbalance.
Stigmas associated with some illnesses, such as cancer, have decreased over time as our understanding of the diseases and effective treatments have grown. The stigma associated with AIDS, particularly in the 1980s when the disease was little understood and before treatments were developed, is gradually abating.
A Fire in My Belly (1986–87), a 13-minute video version of an unfinished film by American artist David Wojnarowicz (1954–1992), is part of the exhibition. Visually powerful with images some may find disturbing, the video depicts the inevitability of death as well as the artist’s anger and grief after losing many friends to AIDS-related illnesses, of which he, too, would die. The work is on loan from the PPOW Gallery in New York.
The free exhibition is made possible by members of the Toledo Museum of Art and supported in part through the sustainable grant program of the Ohio Arts Council. Admission to the Museum also is free.
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