Portrait of Dr. Thomas Dent Mutter (circa 1846). Courtesy Mütter Museum via NY Times

The Mütter Museum in Philadelphia was originally founded in 1856 as an adjunct collection of teaching materials for the city’s College of Physicians, following a bequest of the personal collection of Dr. Thomas Dent Mütter to the school. Mütter was one of the first physicians in United States to collect wet specimens, tools and anatomical models for the purpose of medical demonstration in an age where surgical examples were often difficult to procure.

Within decades, as advances in the medical sciences began to outpace the Museum’s ability to add relevant teaching material to its stores, the Mütter began to collect what would become the repository of oddities and artifacts that it has become known for today.

c. George Widman/Mütter Museum, Courtesy Mütter Museum via NY Times

The Museum’s collection consists of an astounding number items reflecting changes in the technology of medicine, as well as memorabilia belonging to present and past practitioners. Housed in 19th century glass cases, the scientific materials of yesteryear have become an enjoyably macabre journey into the history of bodily examination. On a recent visit, highlights of the permanent collection included:

An overview of the history of conjoined twins and their biographies, related to the Museum’s possession of the livers and a plaster cast of Chang and Eng, the original and most famous Siamese twins of the 19th century.

The free cell-phone audio tour of the Mütter’s most popular items, which revealed in-depth information about the Soap Lady, a mysterious corpse exhumed from Philadelphia’s Washington Square Park whose body is covered in a layer of waxy soaplike material that essentially mummified her remains.

The "soap lady" is prepared for an X-ray at the Mütter Museum. Researchers (from left) Frank Cerrone, Michael Schlenk and Gerald J. Conlogue. (Photo: John Costello/Philadelphia Inquirer)

Bookbindings of tanned human skin (a predecessor of Vim Delvoye or Catts & Zurr’s skin pieces?)

Account of William Corder's trial bound in his skin. Not part of the Mütter collection. (Dan Alban/Harvard Law Record)

Two flat-files containing a meticulously catalogued collection of 2,000 objects extracted from people’s throats.

Tucked away into the back of the side rooms, the rotating exhibits included the opulent Extraordinary Bodies: Photographs from the Mütter Museum, a selection of images from the Mütter’s archives paired with a selection of images by contemporary photographers who have incorporated pieces from the Museum’s collection into their works.

Joel-Peter Witkin, Harvest, 1984, silver gelatin print.

Mütter Museum:  19 South Twenty-Second Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103

Tags: 19th century, anatomy, Chang and Eng, collection, College of Physicians, contemporary, human skin, Joel Peter Witkin, medical, Museum, Mutter Museum, oddities, Philadelphia, photographers, photographs, science, Siamese twins, Soap Lady, specimens, surgical, Thomas Mutter, throats.

I remember my first encounter with James Castle’s handmade books in college, at the AIGA gallery on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. The carefully printed, often reversed alphabets and illustrated block panels on found paper, ads and magazines gave the sense that I was looking at rare artifacts from a universe parallel to our own. They seemed like personal journals, graphic novels recorded by an alien scribe observing our world from a distance, and in a sense, this was the case. Deaf since birth, Castle chose imagery over speech as the primary method of understanding and communicating with the world around him.

James Castle, Untitled, 20th c. (calendar/double sided). 8.5 x 10" Courtesy Greg Kucera Gallery

The documentary film, James Castle: Portrait of an Artist, by writer-director Jeffrey Wolf, produced by the Foundation for Self-Taught American Artists, is one of the highlights of the artist’s recently-opened  retrospective at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Wolf’s documentary gives an insightful introduction into Castle’s life, and a well-organized overview of his work. The film includes interviews with Castle’s relatives, and wonderful commentary by John Yau and Robert Storr. A DVD of the documentary is enclosed with every copy of the exhibition catalog, which I highly suggest you run out and buy in addition to seeing the retrospective.

The hundreds of drawings, collages and assemblages exhibited in the Philadelphia Museum are only a fraction of the works that Castle created in his lifetime, and are inspiring on many levels. Castle’s inventive compositions and constructions, and his constant rethinking of the familiar spaces in his life are apparent in his work, taking it beyond what we have come to think of as the work of an untrained “outsider.”

James Castle, Untitled, Not dated. Found paper, soot, string, graphite. 15.5 x 14.5". Courtesy J Crist Gallery

James Castle, Untitled (Shed Interior with Drawings, Constructions, Books, and Objects), n.d. Soot and spit on found paper Sheet (irregular): 8.5 x 10". Collection of Philadelphia Museum of Art: Gift of Ann and John Ollman in memory of Maurice and Kathryn Hammond, 1998. Photo by Lynn Rosenthal and Andrea Simon

James Castle, Untitled (Morton Salt Girl), n.d. found paper, color of unknown origin. 7.5 x 6" Collection of Susan Chereskin. Photo courtesy J Crist Gallery, Boise

October 14, 2008 - January 4, 2009
www.philamuseum.org

Tags: AIGA, assemblage, books, collage, documentary, drawing, Foundation for Self-Taught American Artists, James Castle, Jeffrey Wolf, John Yau, New York, outsider art, paper, Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art, retrospective, Robert Storr, soot.

Amelia Biewald integrates a diverse range of materials, from leather to velvet and wood to create a dynamic body of drawings and sculptures exhibited in her second solo show Intrigue at Magnan Projects.

The baroque works are influenced by the life and legend of Catherine the Great and feature recurring fantasy imagery of horses, women and other mythological figures. The artist’s sureness of hand is best exemplified in her bleach paintings on upholstery velvet.

Courtesans, 2008. © Amelia Biewald, Courtesy Magnan Projects

Her Brilliant Career, 2008. © Amelia Biewald, courtesy Magnan Projects

November 6th - December 20th 2008
www.magnanprojects.com

Tags: Amelia Biewald, Catherine the Great, drawings, Intrigue, Magnan Projects, New York, paintings, sculptures, velvet.