Art of Care

Examine the ways artists over the last century have pictured and envisioned acts of caregiving as observers, practitioners, patients, and activists. The works in this exhibition present a broad range of approaches to medical care, from informal networks of mutual aid and community support to professional procedures and emergency interventions. Highlights include a drawing by Elizabeth Catlett, who portrays the demeanor and spirit of a nurse on duty in World War II, and photographs by W. Eugene Smith chronicling the challenging labor of Maude Callen, a nurse-midwife stationed in the rural South.

The works on view affirm that the field of medicine itself has long served as an arena in struggles for social justice and human rights, as people continue to fight over who receives care, who gives care, and how care itself is defined. At a time when the stakes of such struggles are higher than ever, the pictures gathered here speak to the many forms of care that health, healing, and human dignity require.