The Mütter Museum’s spring art exhibit brings unusual beauty to the human form in La Maladie, a solo exhibition by New Orleans born artist Betsy Stirratt. Stirratt paints anatomical images of ailing body parts in intricate detail and sets them against gold leaf, creating works reminiscent of saintly Byzantine masterpieces rather than medical illustrations. As a result, what might look at home in an antique edition of Gray’s Anatomy becomes a shimmering study of what makes us human. In La Maladie, viewers are invited to find – and appreciate – a fragile beauty in uncomfortable subject matters. La Maladie will be on display in the Thomson Gallery at the Mütter Museum from January 15, 2016 until July 8, 2016.
About artist Betsy Stirratt: Betsy Stirratt has been exhibiting her paintings, books, objects and installations since 1983. Her work has been shown at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, The American Craft Museum, Art in General in New York, and in galleries nationwide. She has received several grants and awards, including a Visual Artist Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and awards from the Indiana Arts Commission and the American Craft Council. Betsy Stirratt is currently the Director of the Grunwald Gallery of Art at Indiana University in Bloomington.
The College of Physicians of Philadelphia is home to the Mütter Museum and the Historical Medical Library. The Mütter Museum is America’s finest museum of medical history, helping the public appreciate the mysteries and beauty of the human body while understanding the history of diagnosis and treatment of disease. This includes a biannual rotation of art exhibits that accompany the themes and aims of the museum’s collections.