The New England Grimpendium: Jack Kevorkian Paintings

For the next month, I’ll be posting photo essays on locations, attractions, and artifacts elaborated on in my new book, The New England Grimpendium (available now) to celebrate its debut...and to convince you that it’s worth buying, I guess. That was directed at you, Mom.




April 24, 2010 — Besides being an assisted suicide proponent, Jack Kevorkian, the man known to most of us as Dr. Death, has been known to drop the scythe every once in a while and try his hand at art, often of the macabre variety. I was fortunate enough to be granted private access to his collection of original paintings that are these days kept in the vaults of the Armenian Library and Museum of America in Watertown, MA (Kevorkian's parents were Armenian refugees). I’ll skip the rest of the commentary and just let his works scream for themselves.

I need to do a whole article on ALMA itself at some point.

 
 A Very Still Life

Nearer My God to Thee 

For He Is Raised and Fa La La La La - La La - La La 

 Brotherhood

The Gourmet (On War) 

The mixed media piece 1915 Genocide 1945 incorporates actual blood in the paint. Often reported as Kevorkian's own blood, I was told that it was just anonymous blood he was able to procure using his connections as a doctor.

This is what you look like when you have a Fever 

Paralysis


Much thanks to the curator at ALMA, Gary Lind-Sinanian, who went through the trouble of pulling these out of storage for me to gawk at with my hand on my chin.


Read about my visit to see Jack Kevorkian's paintings in The New England Grimpendium, which is on sale now.