Tag: art
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Art, anhedonia, and family psychodynamics in the creativity of Nathaniel Hawthorne
Stephen MartinThailand There are interesting questions about how the mental phenomenology of the great writer Nathaniel Hawthorne1 drove his work. His supreme narrative gift and engaging observation were shadowed by anhedonia, which is a complete or partial lack of the ability to experience pleasure and a hallmark of clinical depression. In modern criteria,2 major depressive…
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Feast or famine: Food in the art of Bruegel
Howard Fischer Uppsala, Sweden The Peasant Wedding. Peter Bruegel the Elder, 1566–9. Via Wikimedia. “Famine was part of everyday life.”1 Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525–1569), one of the most accomplished Netherlandish painters, often used peasant life as his subject. The survival of peasant agricultural society depended entirely on the success of their crops.…
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Body Scan 2023
Dome Witt Calgary, Alberta, Canada After being injured in a collision, the artist took to exploring the experience through a series of paintings. A CT scan taken before the repairing of the artist’s hip serves as the base of one of these paintings, entitled Body Scan 2023. Silver foil highlights fractures in the artist’s…
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The Mind of Covid-19
Terrance Jones Chicago, Illinois, United States The Mind of Covid-19 reflects and recalls the one year and two months stuck in my home during the pandemic. Lots of reflection, creation, curiosity, worry, stress, fear, loss, and inspiration. An explosion of color depicts the ugliness of the fight transforming into the beauty of victory. Working…
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Auguste Renoir and his arthritis
Clearing in the Woods. Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1865, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts. Renowned for his colorful portraits and landscapes, Auguste Renoir (1841–1919) was one of the greatest French Impressionists. He painted some 4,000 compositions, many still admired all over the world. But during his last twenty years, he suffered from a debilitating illness…
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Gently, Doctor, tell me what you see
Florence Gelo Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States Girl with a Hand Mirror. William McGregor Paxton, 1915. Courtesy of the Reading Public Museum, Reading, Pennsylvania. In order to emphasize the role of the arts when teaching the humanities in medicine, I have often taken medical students, residents, and doctors to art museums to develop the art…
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Interpreting René Magritte’s The Rape
Mirjana Stojkovic-Ivkovic Belgrade, Serbia The Rape. Oil painting by René Magritte, 1934. Menil Collection, Houston, TX, via Wikiart. Fair use. When exhibited by René Magritte in Brussels in 1930, The Rape was covered with a curtain so as not to cause a scandal. It depicts a woman’s face which, instead of eyes, nose, and…
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Romantique
Jonathan B. Ferrini La Jolla, California, United States “Forest Stream.” Photo by John D. on Flickr. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. “I live in a world of spring showers of acrylic and watercolor droplets painting the score on the pavement of a Chopin nocturne.” These were the last words my brother Marshal spoke to me ten…