Category: Historical Perspectives in Art

Art, Well-being and Medicine at the Barnes Foundation

A key mission of the Barnes Foundation is the promotion of education through art appreciation. Its Art, Well-Being and Medicine program was created in 2017. Practitioners and patients alike experience the Barnes’ vast collection through seven guided exercises; the results can be profound. This article takes the reader into an encounter with art at the Barnes, and shows how the questions raised among colleagues can impact clinical perspectives.

Horace Pippin: Art, War, and Rehabilitation

Download the article (pdf) Table of Contents Introduction Horace Pippin began creating art as a hobby in his childhood; this practice later served as an

Viral Imaginations: Healing Through Pandemic Narratives

As the COVID-19 pandemic blindsided us in 2020, an interdisciplinary team at The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) developed the Viral Imaginations: COVID-19 project to encourage all Pennsylvanians to creatively cope by telling their unique stories. The results, sampled here, were profound. The authors note that similar projects could “benefit healthcare, including rehabilitation, by creating understanding among and between patients, providers, and others involved in the circle of care.”

Art History as a Resource for Understanding Social Bias in Disability

In a dramatic presentation of imagery past and present, this author invites readers to consider ongoing attitudes toward persons with disabilities.

How Art Embodies Story: An Exploration of Basquiat Through a Physically Integrated Dance Performance

Melissa McCune reports on a recent dance project of Full Radius Dance—a company that integrates disabled and non-disabled dancers—which interpreted the works of artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. As a child, Basquiat experienced a debilitating injury that greatly influenced his art. Encountering groundbreaking works such as these, McCune explains, can help clinicians look beyond basic anatomy to see the “layered nature” of pain and disability.

Reviving and Reflecting on “Portrait of Spirit: One Story at a Time”

Both a book and an exhibit, Portrait of Spirit: One Story at a Time by Billy Howard and Maggie Holtzberg offers new perspectives while challenging the way we view the lived disability experience. Using stunning photographs and beautifully written narratives from Portrait of Spirit, this piece serves as an ode to the groundbreaking stories that started it all while advocating for continued societal change for people living with disabilities.

Historical Perspectives in Art: The Value of Art History in a Pandemic: Teaching as a Healing Force

In this powerful reflection, Siobhan Conaty shows how art history as a health humanities discipline can provide two uniquely different (yet equally important) teaching methods for students reckoning with a health crisis. One negative (a critical reading of graphic pandemic images) and one positive (looking to art as a powerful healing instrument), each serves an important purpose. Conaty details the positive approach she recently chose for her students — emphasizing art as a healing force.

Physical Therapy at Bath War Hospital: Rehabilitation and Its Links to WW1

Heide Pöstges, MSc, PT explores the accelerated development of rehabilitation medicine during the First World War (WWI), through the artwork of British painter E. Horton. In the painting, “Physical Therapy at Bath War Hospital,” Horton depicts one of the very first physiotherapy departments in England. As Pöstges analyzes the painting in its historical context, we are given a new perspective into the socio-political-economic aspects of the evolution of physical therapy.

Historical Perspectives in Art | Edgar Degas: Celebrating Beauty in Movement

Melissa McCune, SPT takes you into the world of Edgar Degas as he captures the art of physical movement. She shows us how, at a time when art focused on the face, the clothing, perhaps the hands, Degas chose to focus his paintings “on the body as a whole to reveal its objective beauty and intimate connection with the space around it.”

Inside “Christina’s World”

Working with medical students at Penn State University, J.O. Ballard, MD, uses the art of Andrew Wyeth to sharpen their observational skills and help them develop an empathic understanding of the patient’s lived experience of illness.

Rembrandt’s Anatomical Portraits

Historical Perspectives in Art Section Editor Siobhan Conaty metaphorically dissects Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn’s life and work to better inform our understanding of the impact of art on the study of anatomy.

The Anatomy Studies of Thomas Eakins

The Historical Perspectives in Art section provides an introduction to a classic artist (painter, sculpture or photographer) whose work may reflect a study of human body and movement, confrontation with disease or other aspects of the human condition. For our first example, we chose one of the most influential artists in American history, Thomas Eakins. A realist painter, photographer, sculptor and fine arts educator, he is known for his in-depth study of the body in motion.

Art, Well-being and Medicine at the Barnes Foundation

A key mission of the Barnes Foundation is the promotion of education through art appreciation. Its Art, Well-Being and Medicine program was created in 2017. Practitioners and patients alike experience the Barnes’ vast collection through seven guided exercises; the results can be profound. This article takes the reader into an encounter with art at the Barnes, and shows how the questions raised among colleagues can impact clinical perspectives.

Horace Pippin: Art, War, and Rehabilitation

Download the article (pdf) Table of Contents Introduction Horace Pippin began creating art as a hobby in his childhood; this practice later served as an

Viral Imaginations: Healing Through Pandemic Narratives

As the COVID-19 pandemic blindsided us in 2020, an interdisciplinary team at The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) developed the Viral Imaginations: COVID-19 project to encourage all Pennsylvanians to creatively cope by telling their unique stories. The results, sampled here, were profound. The authors note that similar projects could “benefit healthcare, including rehabilitation, by creating understanding among and between patients, providers, and others involved in the circle of care.”

Art History as a Resource for Understanding Social Bias in Disability

In a dramatic presentation of imagery past and present, this author invites readers to consider ongoing attitudes toward persons with disabilities.