Anatomica Aesthetica exhibition at the Cleveland Institute of Art: images from the opening on November 5.

Images from the opening of Anatomica Aesthetica, November 5, Reinberger Galleries, Cleveland Institute of Art.

Anatomica Aesthetica showcases more than a decade of work by contemporary fine-art photographers from the Mütter Museum and the H. F. Aitken biomedical llustrations from the Dittrick Medical History Center. The exhibition includes images from the Mütter Museum’s renowned historical photography collection alongside contemporary images that extend the boundaries of traditional photographic subject matter. Guest curator Laura Lindgren brought together aesthetically diverse photographers including Shelby Lee Adams, Max Aguilera-Hellweg, Gwen Akin and Allan Ludwig, Candace diCarlo, Dale Gunnoe, Steven Katzman, Mark Kessell, Scott Lindgren, Olivia Parker, Rosamond Purcell, Richard Ross, Ariel Ruizi Altaba, Harvey Stein, Arne Svenson, William Wegman, and Joel-Peter Witkin. The H. F. Aitken collection comprises some 2000+ sketches, drawings, paintings, prints, and books from the estate of Hamlet Frederick Aitken (1872 - 1939), an artist and medical illustrator from Massachusetts. Maggie Pierce, a senior in the CIA biomedical art program, selected fifty works from the Aitken collection to be featured in this installation.

The exhibition runs from November 5 to December 18, 2010.

Related events include:

December 8

Amanda S. Almon, C.M.I. Associate Professor and Head of the Biomedical Art Department at The Cleveland Institute of Art and Adjunct Assistant Professor in anatomy at Case Western Reserve University, will provide a brief history of Biomedical Art, and the important role artists play in imaging medical science, in conjunction with Anatomica Aesthetica from 12:30-1:15pm. Meet near the entrance to the Reinberger Galleries.

December 15

James M. Edmonson, Chief Curator, Dittrick Medical History Center and Museum, College of Arts and Sciences, Case Western Reserve University and curator of Anatomica Aesthetica along with co-curator Maggie Pierce, senior in the Biomedical Art Program at The Cleveland Institute of Art, will give an informal gallery talk followed by a book signing for Dissection: Photographs of a Rite of Passage in American Medicine, co-authored by John Harley Warner and James M. Edmonson. 12:30-1:15pm. Meet near the entrance to the Reinberger Galleries.

Photos courtesy of Robert Muller, Cleveland Institute of Art.