Rollins Museum Project

This semester I have been given the honor of working with The Rollins Museum of Art (RMA). Although this museum would be stunning on its own it is unique in that it is a teaching museum whose works of art are used on several college campuses and throughout different communities in order to facilitate learning. On site the RMA is a destination for students to immerse themselves in the learning process and now the RMA has taken it further. They have a virtual program that serves the community as well.

This semester my group will work together to add to RMA’s Teaching Portfolios. We have decided to look at natural science and anatomy from the Renaissance to the present. We believe this collection could not only be used on college campuses but also be something that K-12 could utilize in the classroom. It is important to us that this Portfolio be something that people of all ages be able to use and learn from.

One of the pieces we have chosen to include is Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Academic Study of the Mal Figure. Basquiat is an American artist who claimed himself as a Neo-expressionist. His love for anatomical art is said to have started in 1968 when he was hit by a car while playing in the street at the age of seven. Although before this he was always encouraged to draw cartoons, and stretches of the natural world when he was in the hospital his mother brought him a copy of Grey’s Anatomy thus began his look at the human body. We would see this love re-emerge later in life when his move to the East Village would see him living with a biology graduate. He would often be found drawing or turning the ordinary artworks in their apartment into pieces of anatomical artwork.

This piece, unlike his other social commentary pieces, was called back to these moments where Basquiat found his love for the human body. He also drew inspiration from Leonardo Da Vinci which is evident from the piece itself.

Basquait not only allows us to see natural science and anatomy through a new lens but he forces us to see that through true trauma something beautiful can be created.

As this project grows I will continue to blog about it. I am truly excited to get a jump on it because there are so many wonderful and forgotten pieces so many people are unaware. If you find the time look at The Rollins Museum of Art’s virtual site. It’s filled with so many pieces I can’t share them all with you.

Link

https://www.rollins.edu/rma/