This New England

-- "Sailing,'' by Hilda Gorenstein

Hilda Gorenstein was a very well-known and distinguished Chicago-based painter whose artist name was "Hilgos.'' She had something of a national following.

After she developed Alzheimer's disease, in her 80s, and at the encouragement of her dynamo daughter, Berna Huebner, and many physicians and other health-care types, she resumed painting and became a symbol of the role of the arts in dealing with neurological disorders.

Hilgos's post-Alzheimer's body of work is beautiful and inspiring.

The watercolor above is one of the many paintings she did after she became ill with this frightening disease.

Mrs. Huebner wrote a book called I Remember Better When I Paint about her mother's experiences and the implications of recent research (some of it at Boston area medical schools) in the role of the arts in treating Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia.

For more information, see www.hilgos.org and/or write to bernahuebner@gmail.com.

 Tags  Alzheimer's Berna Huebner Hilda Gorenstein Hilgos I Remember Better When I Paint www.hilgos.org

Comments

drdowntown said:

Bob - This painting is better than the one by Matisse called "Bateau" that George Will refers to in the lede of a recent column. He notes that in 1961 (I think) MoMA hung it upside down and nobody noticed for a month! (You can see it in the entry "Huh?dernism" on my blog "Architecture Here and There," at projo.com.)

Link | May 14, 2009 10:58 AM
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