Typical Syllabus
The Pulse of Art
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Connections Between the History of Art and the History of Medicine
Tuesdays 5:30‐7:00
Barry Coller, M.D. and Bobbi Coller, Ph.D.
Session 1
The Art of Observation: Active Looking in Medicine and Art
Dr. William Osler examining a patient by inspection at the bedside while at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 1889-1905. Courtesy of The Osler Library of the History of Medicine, McGill University,
Mary Cassatt, The Loge (At the Opera), 1878. Wikipedia
Session 2
Images of Illness
Fancisco Goya, Self-Portrait with Dr Arrieta, 1820. Wikipedia
Session 3
Visit to the Guggenheim Museum of Art led by expert museum educators
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Frank Lloyd Wright, architect, 1959. Exterior view.
Session 4
Picturing Pandemic Disease: From The Black Death Plague to COVID-19
Copper engraving of Doctor Schnabel (i.e., Dr. Beak), a plague doctor in seventeenth-century Rome, circa 1656. Wikipedia
Session 5
Skin Deep: Painting, Pattern, and Color with guest artist Hope Grayson
Pulse of Art class displaying Class Group Portrait.
Session 6
Reading and Misreading Faces: Portraits and the Science of Face Recognition
Markus Hansen, Other Peoples’ Feelings are Also My Own, Soul Drawings, 2004-2006, Courtesy of the artist.
Session 7
Guest speaker, Rick Guidotti, Founder and Director of Positive Exposures, an award-winning photographer who has used photography to effect a sea-change in societal attitudes towards individuals living with genetic, physical, behavioral or intellectual difference.
Rick Guidotti
Positive Exposure
Session 8
The Gross Clinic by Thomas Eakins and The Ascendancy of American Medicine in the Nineteenth Century
Thomas Eakins, Portrait of Dr. Samuel D. Gross (The Gross Clinic), 1875. Wikipedia
Session 9
Second Guided Visit to see the current temporary exhibition at The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum of Art
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Frank Lloyd Wright, architect, interior view 2020.
Session 10
Guest Speaker: Diane Brown, founder and president of RxArt, a nonprofit organization that places art in hospital settings
Diane Brown
Nicolas Party, Children's Hospital Los Angeles
Session 11
Visit to the Rare Book Reading Room of the New York Academy of Medicine and tour with Arlene Shaner, Historical Collections Librarian
New York Academy of Medicine Rare Book Reading Room
Arlene Shaner