Art and Empathy

Students enrolled in FIU’s Honors College course, History of Medicine through the Arts, taught by Dr. Amilcar Castellano-Sanchez, visited the Frost Art Museum over the course of this year to organize Art and Empathy: Selections from the Collection of the Frost Art Museum. By analyzing other exhibitions on view and consulting materials in the museum’s print study room, these student curators learned about the process of creating an exhibition, from caring for objects to writing exhibition labels. Each student undertook research on a work of art and produced its label. As a group, they discussed the checklist, made final selections, and debated the physical presentation of the exhibition. Now a virtual viewing experience, Art and Empathy exemplifies the students’ immersion in the curatorial process of interpreting and making meaning through visual art.

Art and Empathy presents modern and contemporary photographs and works on paper. Drawn entirely from the Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum’s collection, these works have been selected for their diverse expressions of empathy. While works by David Alfaro Siqueiros and Ruth Orkin highlight relationships among immediate family members, prints by Reginald Marsh and Ben Shahn depict economic hardship and emotional pain. Other works by José Bedia and Francisco Amighetti express the enduring emotional connection between humans and animals. Many of the works in the exhibition have rarely been on view or are recent gifts to the collection. History of Medicine through the Arts, an ongoing course, examines how medical history is portrayed in various forms of art.

Leandro Soto (Cuban, b. 1956), Esconder, Ink and marker on paper, 2000, Collection of Liza and Dr. Arturo F. Mosquera, FIU 2002.009.002