There, that's it!
I cannot mend it.
curatorial study
In response to the global pandemic, museums, galleries, libraries, and archives around the world have opened their collections and exhibitions to the public through online platforms, rethinking art's role in society where survival is a primary driving force. This exhibition aims to activate thirty digital reproductions of paintings, drawings, prints, objects, music, and photographs in the public domain by many artists from institutional art history and collections of museums, exploring artistic expressions of health and mortality--not to romanticise, but rather, to borrow their contexts to contemporary understanding.
In 1794, the English poet, painter, and printmaker William Blake (1757-1827) illustrated the archetype of reason as a bearded man separating light and darkness with a compass he had set to the Earth. Bearing this architectural tool, reason creates and constrains the universe—designing the world and humanity under universal laws and conventions of society. In the last days of his life, the artist was commissioned for a reproduction of this piece for a sum greater than his previous works, and while bedridden—he threw the tinted copy exclaiming “There, that will do! I cannot mend it.”
By re-exhibiting digitized copies of previously-restricted works and sharing their contexts in the online public sphere, these works lend their historicity into immediacy, thereby creating the potential for a new compass. This curatorial study hopes to reflect on the role of institutional art history in the circumstance of present survival by intimating on the statement, "There, that's it! I cannot mend it.” -- an act of service, the acceptance of limitation, and the renouncing of power to a bigger, more capable mender.
John Alexis Balaguer
Hover or click on thumbnail to expand images or read the extended notes. All files are shareable and downloadable. All works featured in this exhibition are intended for Fair Use and are under Universal Public Domain Dedication (Creative Commons Licenses) permitting copy, modification, distribution, and performance of the work even for commercial purposes, without requiring permission. Acknowledgements to the various institutions listed for making these works and their research publicly available.
Young Man and Skull (Jeune homme à la tête de mort)
Paul Cézanne
oil on canvas
54.3 x 65.4 cm
ca. 1896–1898
Barnes Foundation Collection
Public Domain
Shape altered
Ancient of Days Setting a Compass to the Earth
William Blake
illustration from Europe a Prophecy
1794
The New York Public Library Collection
Public Domain
Europe, A Prophecy
William Blake
17 plates: colored relief etchings
38 cm
1794
Library of Congress (USA)
Lessing J Rosenwald Collection
Public Domain
Click to view
Coughs and Sneezes
Richard Massingham
film, 1 m 25 s
1945
Contains public sector information
Licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0 (UK)
Public Domain
Masks worn during experiments with plague
Manila, Philippines, 1912
National Museum of Health and Medicine (USA) Collection
Public Domain
Young Woman with Her Hand over Her Mouth
Edgar Degas
oil and turpentine on canvas
41.3 × 33.4 cm
ca. 1875
The Metropolitan Museum of New York Collection
Gift of the Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Charitable Trust
Public Domain
Head of a woman with a handkerchief against her nose
Julie de Graag
1894
The Rijksmuseum Collection
Public Domain
Die Pest (The Plague)
Arnold Bocklin
tempera on fir
149 5 x 104 5 cm
1898
Kunstmuseum Basel
Gottfried Keller-Stiftung Collection
Public Domain
Bone Structure of a Bat
from Die vergleichende Osteologie (Comparative Osteology)
Christian Heinrich Pander & Eduard d' Alton
1821-1828
Smithsonian Libraries Collection
Public Domain
Anatomical illustration
Arnauld-Eloi Gautier-Dagoty (1741-1771)
Illustration for the Royal College of Medicine
Nancy in Lorraine, France
The New York Public Library Collection
Public Domain
Anatomical illustration
Arnauld-Eloi Gautier-Dagoty (1741-1771)
Illustration for the Royal College of Medicine
Nancy in Lorraine, France
The New York Public Library Collection
Public Domain
Physician Wearing a Seventeenth Century Plague Preventive Costume
watercolor
50 8 x 35 9 cm
1910
Wellcome Library Collection
Public Domain
The Sick Child
Gabriel Metsu
oil on canvas
32.2 x 27.2 cm
ca. 1664-1666
The Rijksmuseum Collection
Public Domain
La Nourrice (The Nurse)
attributed to Guillaume Dupré
lead-glazed earthenware
22.9 cm
17th century
The Metropolitan Museum of New York Collection
Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan
Public Domain
Virgin and Child with Saint Anne
Albrecht Dürer
oil on linden
60 x 49.8 cm
1519
The Metropolitan Museum of New York Collection
Bequest of Benjamin Altman
Public Domain
The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669)
oil on canvas
169.5 x 216.5 cm
1632
Mauritshuis Collection
Public Domain
Still Life with Skull (Nature morte au crâne)
Paul Cézanne
oil on canvas
130 x 97.5 cm
ca. 1896–1898
Barnes Foundation Collection
Public Domain
Nearer, My God, to Thee
Sarah Flower Adams
19th century
Version by Hayden Quartet for Victor Records
3 m, 1 s
1908
Internet Archive
Public Domain
A Saadi, or Egyptian shaman using snakes and
incantations to cure a sick man.
T. Wallis
engraving, after W.M. Craig.
1806
Wellcome Collection
Public Domain
Moses and the Brazen Serpent
Sébastien Bourdon
oil on canvas
105 x 89 cm
1653 - 1654
Museo del Prado Collection
Public Domain
Corridor in the Asylum
Vincent van Gogh
Oil color and essence over black chalk on pink laid paper
65.1 x 49.1 cm
1889
The Metropolitan Museum of Art New York Collection
Bequest of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller
Public Domain