Renowned plastic surgeon Daniel Man, MD, has been chosen as the cover artist for JMCP’s annual issue featuring an artist with a pharmaceutical or medical background. It is not too surprising to hear that a plastic surgeon is also an artist—after all, plastic surgeons “sculpt” many parts of the human body. What is surprising, however, is the remarkable success that Man has achieved in both sculpture and painting in a fairly short time. A practicing artist only since 1995, he has been called a “Renaissance Man” by Plastic Surgery Products magazine.
Man was born in Israel in 1946 and grew up in the city of Kfar Saba in central Israel’s coastal plain. The son of general surgeon Boris Man, he attended the best schools even though the family had little money. “Physicians in Israel at that time were making less than bus drivers,” Man says.
As a child, he learned to appreciate fine art from his mother Lusia, an art aficionado. Man used to look for olive-tree wood scraps to use as raw material for sculptures that he gave as gifts to family and friends. When he was a bit older, he learned about a medical specialty called plastic surgery that would be a good field for someone skilled with his hands. He eventually decided to pursue the specialty.
Man earned his medical degree from Sachler Medical School at Tel Aviv University and became a physician in the Israeli army. Toward the end of his military service, he traveled to New York, and the trip sparked his interest in furthering his medical studies in America. Man did his residencies at hospitals in New York and Delaware from 1974 to 1978. His plastic surgery residency was done afterward at the University of Louisville, Kentucky.
In 1981, Man received his board certification in plastic and reconstructive surgery from the American Board of Plastic Surgery. He has been in private practice in Boca Raton, Florida, ever since. Because Man likes to surround himself with beauty and art, his medical office also serves as an art gallery; it is filled with his paintings and sculptures.
Described as a “doctor with heart,” Man received the Humanitarian of the Year award in April 2001 from the Palm Beach County Division of Victim Services for his pro bono plastic surgery work for victims of domestic abuse. In addition, some of his paintings and lithographs have been sold to raise funds for abused women and children.
During the mid-1990s, it was science that inspired Man to renew his interest in art. “I knew that learning how to draw and paint would improve my plastic surgery skills,” he says. “In 1995, I started from scratch. I looked at art in books and attended art festivals.” He decided to take a few art classes, but things did not go too well at first. “I had been away from painting and sculpting too long and needed help. I went to see an art exhibit and met an artist there, Michel Pellus, who is well known for his realistic style,” Man says. “I told him that I was very impressed with his work and asked him to teach me to paint.” Pellus invited Man to his studio once a week for art lessons. The physician’s painting skills soon improved, and a year later, Pellus said that he had nothing left to teach his devoted student.
Man’s enchanting acrylic painting, Woman in Headdress, appears in his book The New Art of Man: Faces of Plastic Surgery. This portrait of a green-eyed beauty depicts one of Man’s former patients. He painted her with the classic features of a Greek goddess; she looks radiant in her multicolored blouse and matching headdress. The vase of flowers on the windowsill and fancy scrollwork on the walls add to the artwork’s romantic effect. A breeze appears to blow the delicate curtain in the open window—one can just imagine the smell of the fresh sea air and the distant cries of the seagulls.
One of Man’s most impressive paintings, The Handshake (1997), was based on a famous photo taken at the signing of the Oslo Accords on September 13, 1993. In the picture, Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat shake hands as President Bill Clinton looks on. Man wrote a letter to Clinton, offering to donate his painting in honor of the historic effort to achieve peace. The White House accepted his offer, and The Handshake hung on the wall outside the Oval Office for 3 years.
Besides being a noted artist and author, Man is also an educator and inventor. Among his many innovations is the minimally invasive “SpaceLift,” an improved method of facelift surgery. The SpaceLift helps patients achieve a more natural-looking appearance by using fillers to mitigate surgery and shorter incisions that are hidden within the curve of the ear.
To learn more about this fascinating physician/artist, visit his Web sites. Man’s plastic surgery site is www.drman.com and his artistic site is www.theartofman.com. There you will find an online gallery of his art, information about commissions and exhibitions, and much more.
Sheila Macho
Cover Editor
Daniel Man, MD, Woman in Headdress, acrylic on canvas. Boca Raton, Florida.
Copyright© 2001.
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