Student Picks: The Human Spectrum

Student Picks is a SCMA program in which Smith students organize their own one-day art show using our collection of works on paper. This month’s student curator and guest blogger Amalia Leamon ’18 discusses her show "The Human Spectrum" which will be on view FRIDAY, November 6 from 12-4 PM in the Cunningham Center for the Study of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs. We hope to see you here!

As a psychology major and neuroscience minor with an interest in education, I am interested in how we develop cognitively and emotionally through our vastly different backgrounds and perspectives. In this exhibit I hope to include images that reveal the complexity and fragility of the human condition. 

Image

^{Andreas Vesalius. Netherlandish, 1514–1564. Tabulae Selectae, from De Humani Corporis Fabrica, 1543 block; ca. 1934 print. Woodcut printed in black on paper. Gift of Dr. Myra L. Johnson, class of 1931. SC 1966.15.30.}

What motivates us, what taps into our varied emotional states and how our biology influences our experience are all questions I am interesting in exploring.

Image

^{Ken Heyman (American, born 1930). Hip Shots: Woman with curly hair holding sunglasses, New York, 1984. Gelatin silver print. Gift of Nicole Moretti Ungar, class of 1982, and Jon Ungar. Photography by Petegorsky/Gipe. SC 2011:71-59}

From early anatomical depictions of the human body to contemporary self-portraits, these images shed light on the ability for art to inform science and vice versa in their attempts to illuminate what it is to be human.

Image

^{Anne Noggle. American, 1922–2005. Stellar by Starlight, #1, 1985. Gelatin silver print. Purchased. Photography by Petegorsky/Gipe. SC 1987.10.2a.}