UCSF - Half Brained

UCSF – Half Brained
From the Lost Drawings Series by Peter Bogdanov
Graphite on smooth archival drawing paper (early 1990s, UCSF Anatomy Lab)
There are drawings that teach you how to see.
And there are drawings that change what you see.
“UCSF – Half Brained” is one of the most sobering works from Peter Bogdanov’s early anatomy lab sessions at the University of California, San Francisco. Drawn in the presence of a preserved infant cadaver, the figure is small, quiet, and disturbingly still—its skull malformed or opened, subtly revealing the absence of a fully developed brain.
But Bogdanov doesn’t sensationalize. He witnesses.
The child’s body is rendered with delicate, almost reverent graphite lines. The limbs, curled softly inward, suggest a fetal stillness. There is no theatrical shadowing—just light, human honesty. The title, “Half Brained,” is both clinical and cutting: it refers to the visible deformity, but also alludes to a life that never had the chance to become whole. A future that never started.
This is not anatomy for curiosity’s sake—it is art as confrontation. As mourning. As record.
Bogdanov, still in his early 20s at the time, was one of a select few art students granted access to UCSF’s anatomy lab. For him, the experience would permanently reshape how he saw the body—not just as form, but as memory, story, and fragile hope. This drawing, in its restraint, may be one of the most emotionally potent pieces from the Lost Drawings Series.
The original was lost in the 2024 Florida hurricanes. Only a high-resolution scan, quietly archived, remained—preserving not just the image, but the moment of witness it represents.
To collect “UCSF – Half Brained” is to honor what never became. It is a document of loss, rendered without fear—and with more dignity than words could ever hold.