THE ARTIST INSIDE DR. DEATH JACK KEVORKIAN TO OPEN EXHIBITION OF HIS PAINTINGS AT ARMENIAN MUSEUM IN WATERTOWN
by Erica Noonan Globe Staff
The Boston Globe
October 2, 2008 Thursday
MA
GLOBE NORTH 1
The art is severe, and at times disturbing.
So is the artist, Dr. Jack Kevorkian, who will be in Watertown on
Sunday to unveil an exhibition of 16 of his paintings owned by the
Armenian Library and Museum of America.
This weekend’s planned appearance will be a rare out-of-state trip for
Kevorkian, a former pathologist from Michigan who earned the nickname
"Dr. Death" for his advocacy of assisted suicide, and who by his
estimate helped 130 terminally ill people take their lives. Kevorkian
has been free on parole since June 2007, after serving eight years in
prison. He was convicted of second-degree murder in 1999 for giving
a lethal injection to a 52-year-old man with Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Visiting the museum is a homecoming of sorts. Kevorkian, 80, is the
child of two Armenian genocide survivors, and the anguish suffered by
his ancestors is reflected in several of his pieces. "1915 Genocide
1945" mixes real human blood with paint to commemorate the extinction
of 1.5 million Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Turkish empire,
and three decades later the murder of 6 million Jews under Nazi
Germany.
In a phone interview last week, he said he doesn’t consider himself
an artist, just someone who "puts in paint the condition of the world
that we live in."
Kevorkian said he began to paint as a hobby when he was a young
man. But he kept delving into the topics of life and death that he
dealt with as a medical examiner. "Everyone was painting landscapes
and clowns and I couldn’t see the value in that. I guess the rebel
in me was thinking I’ll shock them," he recalled.
That urge provoked him to paint "Very Still Life," a brightly rendered
image of an iris bloom growing through a denuded skull and scattered
bones.
"I thought I’d shake them up and they’d be shocked," he said of
the piece. But instead, he said, his classmates and instructor
"were fascinated."
Most of Kevorkian’s artworks are political or religious in nature,
although the exhibition includes a later triptych tribute to composer
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his music that portrays a brighter view
of life, said museum curator Gary Lind-Sinanian.
Many of his original works were stolen from a storage unit in
California, where Kevorkian was living in the late 1970s, but he
repainted many from memory. He donated them and other personal effects
to the Watertown museum before entering prison in Michigan to serve
a 10- to 25-year term, which was shortened for good behavior and
because Kevorkian was ill with hepatitis and diabetes.
The exhibition will feature some new works, including portraits of
the artist’s parents, that are on loan to the museum, Lind-Sinanian
said. The 3 p.m. reception Sunday is part of a slate of provocative
events at the museum this fall, including an appearance next Wednesday
by Mark Krikorian, author of "The New Case Against Immigration,
Both Legal and Illegal."
Bringing Kevorkian to the library and museum may upset some people
who disagree with physician-assisted suicide, acknowledged director
Mariam Stepanyan. But its mission is "to preserve the heritage of
Armenians for future generations, and to make it relevant for current
generations," she said, and the doctor is among the world’s most
famous Armenian-Americans.
"His art and how he intersects it with religion and the present day
is informed by the experience of the Armenian people," she said. "He
is very connected to his heritage."
Kevorkian is scheduled to follow his Watertown appearance with an
open forum Monday at Harvard Law School, where he expects to discuss
his current run for Congress, among other topics.
"My platform is talking about the real problems in this country,"
he said. "I call myself a radical, which some people think implies
violent behavior. But it comes from the Latin root, which means
`growing straight from the ground.’ I see it as getting straight to
the gist of a problem."
He runs as a independent, Kevorkian said, because belonging to a
political party "straitjackets your mind."
Kevorkian, who was stripped of his Michigan medical license in 1991,
is forbidden under his parole agreement to discuss specific euthanasia
techniques or his assisted-suicide work, including the 1998 case
that led to his conviction after a videotape of the procedure was
broadcast on "60 Minutes." He must also get special permission to
travel out of Michigan.
Kevorkian’s political platform includes prison reform, public
education overhaul, and constitutional rights. He’s also quick to
opine on the news of the day, including the current economic meltdown:
"The solution is not so simple as to throw a lot of money at it,"
he said. "It will just make leaders more corrupt."
His art will stay on public display in Watertown for two months. "We’re
hoping people come and keep an open mind and see the rest of the
treasures that are here," said Lind-Sinanian.
The opening reception for "The Doctor Is Out: The Art of Dr. Jack
Kevorkian" is 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday at the Armenian Library and Museum of
America, 65 Main St., Watertown. The show will run through Dec. 5. More
information is available at