BARD ART HISTORY STUDENTS CURATE DISSECTION: WORKS BY "THE DOCTOR," AN ANONYMOUS NEW YORK ARTIST On view at the Bertelsmann Campus Center from December 12 to 20
ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—Two Bard art history students, Anna Bohichik and Martha Hart, will present an exhibition titled Dissection: Works by "The Doctor," at the Bertelsmann Campus Center's George Ball Lounge from Friday, December 12, through Saturday, December 20. An artist's reception will be held on Wednesday, December 17, from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. The exhibition and reception are free and open to the public, and the works are on view daily from noon to 5:00 p.m.
Like the greatest of folk artists, "The Doctor," who wishes to remain anonymous, does not paint for recognition. According to Bohichik and Hart, his work includes more than 200 paintings and spans 30 years, yet it has never been exhibited. Besides his family and close friends, few would expect this ex-surgeon to be an accomplished painter. The curators note that his work fuses his external and internal worlds. In his paintings, the operating table becomes a prop at the Metropolitan opera, his students the audience. He depicts the open patient with cubist abstraction, and with the anatomical accuracy that only a surgeon could possess. "If Thomas Eakins and Picasso had joined forces, it would have looked like his art," says Martha Hart.
For many years "The Doctor" kept this work private, preferring his identity as a father and respected doctor. Now, after retiring to the Hudson Valley and assuming a pseudonym, his paintings will be shown for the first time.
For further information, call the Art History Program at 845-758-6822 extension 6676, or e-mail [email protected].
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(11.25.03)
[Editor's Note: For interviews with the curators, call 845-616-9134 or e-mail Hart at [email protected] or Bohichik at [email protected].]