Closing Thoughts...

Wayne Southwick, MD, taught at Yale from 1958 until his retirement in 1993, serving much of his long tenure as chief of orthopaedic surgery. After his retirement, his friends, colleagues, former students and patients endowed Yale School of Medicine’s first chair in orthopaedic surgery in his name. Dr. Southwick began creating sculptures at age 56 and studied at The Lyme Academy of Fine Arts.

In a “Doctors Afield,” a collection of stories by physicians with side pursuits, Dr. Southwick wrote that the landscape of his boyhood home of Friend, Nebraska, contributed to his interest in things three-dimensional, and ultimately, to his fascination with the human body, including bone and tissue, and with sculpture. The majority of his works are of people in motion.

He writes: "The landscape comprised a relentlessly flat prairie, a big sky, and an ocean of wheat, corn, soybeans and grass dotted with an occasional barn, windmill, silo or grain elevator and, of course, cattle and horses. Aspects of this scene, such as the billowing white clouds that at dawn and dusk turned purple and orange, seemed largely two-dimensional. The spaciousness and flatness made human artifacts stand out as three-dimensional interruptions that could be felt as well as seen."

Dr. Southwick has received numerous honors for his medical contributions and leadership, including a 2003 Diversity Award from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. He exhibits often at the Yale Physician Building's Art Place gallery, where he has earned the distinction of being called "sculptor in residence."

The Arts Council of Greater New Haven designated Yale Physicians Building as an official New Haven art space in May 2000. Art Place enhances the patient care setting with original work from artists within the Yale and New Haven communities.