Posts Tagged ‘Collection’

Head Composed of Writhing Écorché Figures Composed in the Manner of Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Wellcome Collection

Posted on February 1st, 2012 • Filed under Learn • No Comments

“Recently conserved painting of a head composed of writhing écorché figures, composed in the manner of Giuseppe Arcimboldo (right: Wellcome Library no. 44576i).” Click on image to see much larger, more detailed version.

Via The Wellcome Library blog.

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Photographing the Dead: The History of Postmortem Photography from The Burns Collection and Archive, Monday December 5th, Observatory

Posted on December 6th, 2011 • Filed under Learn • No Comments

Tomorrow night at Observatory! Be sure to arrive early, as this one is sure to sell out! Above are a few more of the hundreds of images that will be discussed.

Full details follow; hope to see you there!

Photographing the Dead: The History of Postmortem Photography from The Burns Collection and Archive
Illustrated Lecture and book signing with Stanley B. Burns, MD, FACS of the Burns Collection and Archive
Date: Monday, December 5th
Time: 8:00
Admission: $5
Presented by Morbid Anatomy
*** Books will be available for sale and signing; see bottom of this page for complete list of books available

Postmortem photography, photographing a deceased person, was a common practice in the 19th and early 20th centuries. These photographs, from the beginning of the practice until now, are special mementos that hold deep meaning for mourners through visually “embalming” the dead. Although postmortem photographs make up the largest group of nineteenth-century American genre photographs, until recent years they were largely unseen and unknown. Dr. Burns recognized the importance of this phenomenon in his early collecting when he bought his first postmortem photographs in 1976. Since that time he has amassed the most comprehensive collection of postmortem photography in the world and has curated several exhibits and published three books on the subject: the Sleeping Beauty series. Tonight, Dr. Burns will speak about the practice of postmortem photography from the 19th century until today and share hundreds of images from his collection.

About Sleeping Beauty: Dr. Burns’ first book on postmortem photography, Sleeping Beauty: Memorial Photography in America (1990) has been widely recognized as one of the most important photography books of all time. Sleeping Beauty has influenced an eclectic array of fields, from bereavement counseling and education to cultural anthropology, history, medicine, philosophy, religion and spirituality (not to mention pop music) and has been cited in debates on the death penalty, euthanasia and abortion. It has been the subject of numerous scholarly papers as well as seminars and exhibitions at notable institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and The New Museum of Contemporary Art. A decade later the Archive published Sleeping Beauty II: Grief, Bereavement & The Family in Memorial Photography American & European Traditions in conjunction with an exhibit at the Musée d’Orsay. Sleeping Beauty III Memorial Photography: The Children, the third installment in this series was released this year to accompany a traveling exhibition.

About the Burns Collection and Archive: The Burns Collection, founded in 1975 hosts the nation’s largest collection of early medical photography and has been generally recognized as one the most important private comprehensive collections of early photography (over one million photographs). The Collection is best known for images of the dark side of life: death, disease, disaster, mayhem, crime, racism, revolution, riots and war. Dr. Burns has authored forty-three photo-historical texts and curated more than fifty photographic exhibitions. He is a founding donor of several museum photography collections, including the J. Paul Getty Museum and The Bronx Museum of the Arts. In addition to being an internationally distinguished author, curator, historian, collector, publisher, and archivist, Dr. Burns is a New York City ophthalmologist and Clinical Professor of Medicine and Psychiatry at NYU Langone Medical Center. The Burns Archive produces publications, exhibitions, and manages image licensing for the Burns Collection. To find out more, you can visit the Burns Archive Blog, website, or press website.

These Burns Archive titles will be available for sale and signing:
Sleeping Beauty III Memorial Photography: The Children $36
Sleeping Beauty II: Grief, Bereavement & The Family in Memorial Photography… $85
Shooting Soldiers: Civil War Medical Photography by R.B. Bontecou $50
News Art: Manipulated Photographs from the Burns Archive $50
Deadly Intent, Crime & Punishment: Photographs from the Burns Archive $75
Seeing Insanity: Photography & The Depiction of Mental Illness $40

More on Observatory can be found here. To sign up for events on Facebook, join our group by clicking here. To sign up for our weekly mailer, click here. Directions to Observatory can be found here.

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Voodoo Medicinal Panels, Wellcome Collection

Posted on October 22nd, 2011 • Filed under Learn • No Comments

6 paintings : acrylic on wood ; wood of each painting ca. 122 x 66 cm.
Contents 1. “Gono”
2. “Male genital organ”, “Female genital organ”
3. “Breast cancer”
4. “Syphilis”
5. “Eye”, “Fistula”, “Sore”
6. “Pregnant woman”

Credits On verso of no. 5, painted name: “Anan Antoine”

Summary Salvaged in August 2010, the six panels formed the walls of the shack of a vodoo (voodoo, vodou, vodun) practitioner in the town of Adjarra. The town is about one hour’s drive from Porto Novo, the capital city of Benin, on a mud road towards the Nigerian border. The population attends a flourishing vodoo market where medical practitioners have dried animal parts, carved statuettes and other fetishistic items available for medicinal purposes. The paintings advertise the diseases and parts of the body which the practitioner offers to cure through sorcery and animal sacrifices that call upon the spirit world

Read more about these remarkable panels voodoo panels in the amazing Wellcome Collection by clicking here.

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Master Pieces from Itinerant Art, Auction Sale of the Fabienne & François Marchal Collection of Fairground Art at Drouot Montaign, Paris

Posted on September 19th, 2011 • Filed under Learn • No Comments

PARIS, FRANCE – Auction sale of the Fabienne & François Marchal Collection of Fairground Art at Drouot Montaigne on September 28-29, 2011. Held by Cornette de Saint-Cyr with nearly 900 lots including a portable Alfred Chanvin & anon. carousel with wooden horses. Selected auction pieces will be shown at Drouot Montaigne from Sept. 7-18. The entire collection will be displayed at the Porte de Versailles exhibition centre from Sept. 23-26.

The Fairground was a major vector of communication in the 19th century, popularizing scientific and medical inventions, as epitomized here by wax anatomical figures from the Palace Museum. The Fabienne & François Marchal Collection is the fruit of many years devoted to the safeguard of a specific aspect of our artistic and cultural heritage.

Among the historic and/or rare items will be some 80 wooden horses and 160 other carousel animals, dating from 1850-1960, including a Van Guyse Noah’s Ark; Spooner centaurs; and rare animals by Mathieu & Bayol. Various target games, wheels of fortune and a music hall shy or bouffes-balles will be among the historic fairground games. There will also be numerous decorative items (monumental figures, caryatides, stall fronts, merry-go-round elements), including large triumphant figures by Alexandre Devos, and salon carousel decorative elements by Anton Benner.

All images from the Cornette de Saint Cyr auction house website; text from The Carousel News and Trader. You can find out more–and bid on these lots and many, many more!–by clicking here.

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