“A dead body is itself a strange thing—it’s in the liminal between a person and an object.” What happens after death? Are we forever gone or do our souls remain lurking to watch over our friends and family? Is death a beautiful process as it marks the celebration of the end of one’s life and the possible beginning of another life? Or is dying a painful process that strips individuals of their souls and targets their individuality to make them just one amongst the many corpses present in this world? When one looks at a corpse, it’s the image of a person who once had autonomy. However, now he or she lacks the ability to express his or her thoughts and carry out actions. Are there traces of an individual that are left behind in a corpse, or is a corpse simply just a body and nothing else?
In the second Close Looking session of the year at Brandeis on Oct. 24, Professors David Sherman (ENG) and Anita Hannig (ANTH) discussed their interpretations of Hyman Bloom’s “Corpse of Man,” one of the earliest works exhibited at the Rose Art Museum. Bloom was a bold painter who channeled all of his energy into his art. He was interested in capturing the image of bodies and specifically wanted to highlight the vitality of living bodies. Sherman focused on two peculiar aspects of the painting that he believes Bloom intended for us to explore.
He specifically highlighted the fact that a dead body is a strange image to look at and a bizarre concept to think about. He explained, “We don’t normally [look at dead bodies] because it’s morally queasy to look at a grotesque stranger. It’s almost on the edge of taboo.” Individuals shy away from looking at dead bodies because they believe it is not acceptable in society to analyze the remains of someone who once had life in them. However, despite the fact that a dead body is a morally ambiguous image, the painting is exquisite and unique which causes our eyes to be drawn towards it. Bloom is attempting to beautify the image of a corpse and possibly allow us to bask in the gratification of looking at something that is not supposed to be looked at. Sherman explained how “[h]is intention is to make us queasy…to make us take pleasure in the aesthetic experience of a dead person.”
Bloom uses a palette of bright colors to articulate the active process of decay. Yet the colors are contrasted with a black background, illustrating the combination of movement and stillness present after an individual has died. Furthermore, the proportions of the body present in the painting are not humanly possible, which causes us to be drawn towards the painting. Sherman highlighted how “[w]e’re supposed to look and we’re not supposed to look. The eye doesn’t settle.”
While Sherman took an analytical approach to the painting and pointed to specific techniques Bloom used, Hannig shifted towards a historical perspective on what the implications of this image are. She highlighted how the concept of death has been altered, as now it is not as normalized in society: “This painting speaks to our own society’s relationship with death…death has really come to be seen as a medical problem or failure rather than an expected stage of life.”
Hannig described how Americans were previously more familiar with death; it was a common occurrence in people’s lives because science had not advanced to the point where death was a foreign concept that people did not have to worry about until later in life. This painting could be an attempt to reclaim death as a natural process and a celebration of one’s life rather than a sad event. Hannig cited various examples in which individuals attempt to form a new relationship with death, specifically through hospice doulas, along with magazine articles and books about death. In Hannig’s words, “[Bloom’s] painting expresses an ambivalence around the body and the spirit.”
In my own interpretation, the yellow aura around the top of the individual’s body and the reddish-brown aura around his legs are the outer remnants of his soul attempting to leave the body. The aura surrounding the shoulders of the individual is the inner works of his soul, specifically what makes him different from other people. I believe that this painting is a celebration of individuality. Although everyone eventually dies, each person has something unique to contribute to the world. Everyone is born into this world for some reason and once they have completed the task that they are set out to do, it is their time to move on. This painting, therefore, highlights the importance of living one’s life to the fullest as we never know what will happen to us.
