Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: surrealism

  • Anatomy plates: More shocking than useful

    Jacques Fabien Gautier D’Agoty (1716–1785) was born in Marseilles and learned color printing in Frankfurt while working for Jacob Christoph Le Blond, the man who had invented this process. Perhaps anticipating his later conduct, D’Agoty claimed after Le Blond’s death to have made this invention himself. Moving to Paris in 1736, he had the idea…

  • Surrealist art and the resolution of absurd

    Simon WeinPetach Tikvah, Israel Epigram “There must be a clear preoccupation with death—intimations of mortality . . . Tragic art, romantic art, etc., deals with the knowledge of death.” Mark Rothko, 1958, The Pratt Institute, on the function of art The Problem Fear of death permeates medical practice despite our best efforts to modulate serotonin,…

  • Gertrude Abercrombie: surrealist predilection and pancreatic affliction

    Sally MetzlerChicago, Illinois, United States Chronic pancreatitis, longstanding inflammation of the pancreas, is most commonly caused by an excessive intake of alcohol.1 This was the case of Gertrude Abercrombie, who painted this cryptic, pseudo-surrealistic painting, Letter from Karl. Though born in the United States, early on she lived abroad, when her opera singer parents moved…