UCSF Throat Lab

UCSF Throat Lab
From the Lost Drawings Series by Peter Bogdanov
Graphite on ivory-toned archival paper (early 1990s)
This was no classroom. No model on a stool. No performance of stillness.
This was the real thing.
“UCSF Throat Lab” was created during one of Peter Bogdanov’s most formative—and sobering—experiences as a young artist. Hand-selected from his art school cohort, he was invited to draw inside the anatomy labs at the University of California, San Francisco, where the silence was heavy, and the subject matter sacred.
The drawing captures a dissected throat—stripped of voice, yet speaking volumes. Muscles, tissue, cartilage—each rendered in soft graphite with precise, reverent attention. There is no dramatization here, no exaggeration. Just clarity. Curiosity. A kind of anatomical grace. The composition is direct, almost floating—cut free from the body that once gave it context, yet honored on the page with the dignity of careful observation.
In that lab, Bogdanov wasn’t just learning how to draw. He was learning how to witness.
The experience left a lasting mark on his career, especially in his later work with the human form—tattooing over scars, honoring imperfection, and seeing the body not just as surface, but as structure, system, and story.
The original drawing, like so many in the Lost Drawings Series, was lost in the 2024 hurricanes that decimated Bogdanov’s Florida archive. Only a high-resolution scan remained, preserving this rare intersection of art and medicine.
To collect “UCSF Throat Lab” is to hold a document of truth. A moment when an artist stood face-to-face with mortality, muscle, and memory—and drew, not for beauty, but for understanding.