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| Emil Nolde Red-Haired Girl ca. 1919 oil on canvas Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Emil Nolde North Sea Landscape ca. 1920 watercolor Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Paula Modersohn-Becker Still Life with Green Vase ca. 1902 oil on board Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Henri Matisse Apples 1916 oil on canvas Art Institute of Chicago |
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| El Lissitzky Proun 1920 painted paper collage on board Art Institute of Chicago |
from On a Panel of Adam Naming the Animals
I.
One must remember: all around was Wonder.And each entity caught that glint and glowed
Under the particularity of its nature. Him –
Seated beneath the noble oak in glorious leaf
Full aloft – pronouncing each syllable in deft
Voice and sure of its apt transubstantiation:
* * *
V.
Yet despite his careful setting of each appellative
Stone in that arch, which was atopped by God,
Midnight found him struck – dolor mortalis –
In his mind he saw how the spirit thumps and
Tears at the fabric of a word's small tent –
And learned his lesson that to name is man's
VI.
Unique tautology. He turned his face then
In the coal-bright dark – in molten shame –
From that of God's: for he knew his swift
Tongue flawed and approximative – it alone
Lacked the precise, assured syntax of flight.
– Ellen Hinsey (The White Fire of Time, Wesleyan University Press, 2002)
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| Oskar Schlemmer Abstract Figure ca. 1921-23 nickel-plated bronze Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Pablo Picasso Head 1927 oil and chalk on canvas Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Jacques Lipchitz Seated Figure 1917 limestone Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Raoul Dufy Venus and Seashell 1925 gouache on paper Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Robert Motherwell Wall Painting with Stripes 1944 oil on canvas Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Mikhail Mikhailovich Solov’ev and Inna Mikhailovna Levidova Glory to the Soviet Youth! 1945 color stencils on paper Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Lovis Corinth Self Portrait 1923 drawing Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Giorgio de Chirico The Eventuality of Destiny 1927 oil on canvas Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Jean Arp Growth 1938 unique marble enlargement of plaster maquette Art Institute of Chicago |