HOSPICES: Life-Affirming Care for the Dying - various artists, various museums - Brief Article

"... While hospice [care] may not be an answer for all the dying, it is of immeasurable help to many who otherwise would be in agony, despair, and need."

My generation of Americans never learned to cope very well with death. Our parents did better because they grew up in a world that recognized dying as part of living. Perhaps they were closer, in what seems to have been a simpler time, to the natural order of things. What is certain is that, for them, it was common to lose friends or loved ones by the age of puberty. Dying and grieving were part of community life, whether in city neighborhoods, small towns, or rural farmlands. Mostly, people died at home, where their families closed ranks in mutual support, helping the dying and themselves to face the unknowable.

Most of us who grew up in the aura of scientific and technological faith that has marked postwar America have had a different experience. Often, we have known our parents well into our own middle age. As children, few of us experienced the death of a friend. Polio, smallpox, and tuberculosis--fatal and commonplace in our parents' generation--have been all but banished. Most important, we have been protected, if not insulated, from the dying. Indeed, to us, the very idea of death is only marginally discussable. Rather than accept and deal with this inevitable right of passage, middle-class America made it the ultimate taboo. In 1993, Marilyn Webb, author of The Art of Dying, aptly wrote that we kept death "locked behind hospital doors." As is the usual case with incarceration, in doing so, we also reduced our chances of coming to terms with the prisoner.

Ironically, at a moment in history when technology in every discipline is expanding exponentially, we are moving back toward our parents' gentler understanding of death. We are accepting it with a new humanism as an integral, dignified part of our life process and, importantly, bringing the dying back in to our homes. The hospice movement has been a crucial component of this change in our attitudes.

A central theme of hospice is the belief that the terminally ill should be relieved of pain and, wherever possible, should have dignity and the support of home and family. That hospice has been successful in bringing both these messages and the techniques that support them to millions of families over a relatively short period of time is, perhaps, not surprising when we consider how resonant a human chord is struck by such basic precepts.

The purpose of the exhibition, "Hospice: A Photographic Inquiry," is to expand our understanding of the power and importance of hospice, seeing it through the perspective of the artist's eye. In choosing photography as our medium, we selected a vehicle that many associate instinctively with journalism and documentation. However, reportage is not our purpose. Rather, we wish to share artistic insights born of an immersion into hospice and the people it serves--the dying and their families. The work of Jack Radcliffe and other gifted photographers who accepted this creative challenge achieves a level of communication and meaning that only art makes possible. Despite its diversity of approach, their work consistently rises above physical distress and imminent tragedy to show us the humanity and spirit embedded in this ultimate journey of life, as well as in the ordinary people who are its subject. The exhibition tells us that, while hospice may not be an answer for all the dying, it is of immeasurable help to many who otherwise would be in agony, despair, and need.

"Hospice: A Photographic Inquiry," which originated at The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., is on exhibit at the New Orleans (La.) Museum of Art through April 18. It then will travel to the State University of New York at Buffalo Art Gallery (mid May-late July) and the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Art Gallery, University of Houston (early September-mid November).

Mr. Levy is president and director, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

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