Incomplete Figures

Roman Empire
Emperor Commodus
as the Infant Hercules strangling Serpents
AD 183-192
marble
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Kingdom of Gandhara
Figure of Mourner
2nd-3rd century AD
schist
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Francesco Salviati
Allegorical Figure of Victory
ca. 1550-55
drawing
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

Anonymous Artist
Psyche
(copy of antique fragment)
18th century
marble
National Trust, Castle Ward,
Downpatrick, Northern Ireland

Reidel Glass Works
Venus
ca. 1900
pressed glass
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia

Raymond Duchamp-Villon
Torso of Young Man
1910
plaster
Art Institute of Chicago

Alexander Archipenko
Reclining Torso
1922
glazed ceramic
Art Institute of Chicago

Gerhard Henning
Female Torso
1923
terracotta
Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen

Leon Golub
Figure
1958
lacquer on linen
Gemäldegalerie, Dresden

Joan Eardley
Study of a Child in Jumper and Shorts
ca. 1960
drawing (colored chalks)
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh

Francesca Woodman
Untitled, Providence, Rhode Island
ca. 1975-78
gelatin silver print
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh

R.B. Kitaj
Actor (Richard)
1979
drawing (colored chalks)
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art,
Edinburgh

Magdalena Abakanowicz
Standing Figure
1981
burlap, resin and sand
Denver Art Museum

Maria Kuczynska
Samurai
1986
stoneware
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Georg Baselitz
Torso
1989
drawing (colored chalks)
Kupferstichkabinett, Kunstmuseum, Basel

Tip Toland
The Whistlers
2005
painted stoneware
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

from The Atlantic

                                  Unravelled now
And the shore, under its lucid pane,

    Clear to the sight, it is spent:

The sun rocks there, as the netted ripple

    Into whose skeins the motion threads it

Glances athwart a bed, honey-combed

    By heaving stones. Neither survives the instant

But is caught back, and leaves, like the after-image

    Released from the floor of a now different mind . . .

– Charles Tomlinson (1960)

Hepworth - Henri - Davila - Meldrum

Barbara Hepworth
Two Heads
1970
marble
Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, Little Rock

Barbara Hepworth
Figure (Oread)
1958
bronze
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Barbara Hepworth
Eidos
1947
stone (partly painted)
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Barbara Hepworth
Orpheus
1956
brass and string construction mounted on wood
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane

Florence Henri
Street Scene with Woman
1931
gelatin silver print
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Florence Henri
Woman with Three Bracelets
1929
gelatin silver print
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Florence Henri
Still Life
ca. 1931
gelatin silver print
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Florence Henri
Self Portrait
1928
gelatin silver print
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Juan Davila
Interior with Built-in Bar
1992
screenprint
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Juan Davila
My Dress Hangs There
1987
oil on canvas
Heide Museum of Modern Art, Bulleen, Australia

Juan Davila
Retable
1989
oil paint, wood and collage on canvas
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Juan Davila
Lichtenstein
1984
screenprint
Heide Museum of Modern Art, Bulleen, Australia

Max Meldrum
Rehearsal
1944
oil on canvas
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Max Meldrum
Reverie (Portrait of Elsa Thomson)
ca. 1940
oil on canvas
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Max Meldrum
Edna (Mrs Oscar Mendelsohn)
1942
oil on board
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Max Meldrum
My Lady's Table
ca. 1927
oil on canvas
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

from The Quest

Poet, oracle, and wit
Like unsuccessful anglers by
The ponds of apperception sit,

Baiting with the wrong request
The vectors of their interest,

At nightfall tell the angler's lie.

With time in tempest everywhere,

To rafts of frail assumption cling

The saintly and the insincere,

Enraged phenomena bear down

In overwhelming waves to drown

Both sufferer and suffering.

The waters long to hear our question put

Which would release their longed-for answer, but.

– W.H. Auden (1940)

Contorted Figures

Nicolai Abildgaard
The Wounded Philoctetes
1775
oil on canvas
Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen

Arthur Putnam
Study of Model
ca. 1906-1908
drawing
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
(Achenbach Foundation)

Walter Shirlaw
Académie
ca. 1870
drawing
Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio

Albrecht Dürer
The Desperate Man
ca. 1515
etching
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Anonymous British Artist after William Etty
The Combat
ca. 1840
oil on canvas
York City Art Gallery

Amedeo Modigliani
Caryatid
ca. 1914
drawing
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Amedeo Modigliani
Caryatid
1914
drawing, with watercolor
Denver Art Museum

Anonymous East Indian Artist
Copulation with Facsimile Partners
early 20th century
gouache on paper
Wellcome Collection, London

Max Weber
Figure Study
1911
oil on canvas
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York

Keith Vaughan
Figures
ca. 1960
oil on paper
Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio

Wilfred Avery
Two Figures Undressing
1992
drawing
Museum of Barnstaple and North Devon

Jan Harmensz Muller after Adriaen de Vries
Roman abducting a Sabine Woman
ca. 1595-1600
engraving
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia

Jan Harmensz Muller after Adriaen de Vries
Roman abducting a Sabine Woman
ca. 1595-1600
engraving
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia

Jan Harmensz Muller after Adriaen de Vries
Roman abducting a Sabine Woman
ca. 1595-1600
engraving
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia

William Blake Richmond
Falling Figure
ca. 1880
drawing
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Pat Douthwaite
The End of the World
1970
oil on canvas
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh

from Fiascherino

                                           Glare

Pierces muslin; its broken rays 
    Hovering in trembling filaments
Glance on the ceiling with no more substance

Than a bee's wing. Thickening, these

    Hang down over the pink walls

In green bars, and, flickering between them,
    A moving fan of two colours,
The sea unrolls and rolls itself into the low room. 

– Charles Tomlinson (1955)

Made in 1957

Yousuf Karsh
Glenn Gould
1957
gelatin silver print
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Louise Nevelson
Sky Cathedral
1957
painted wood
San Jose Museum of Art, California

Karl Stanley Benjamin
Totem Group
1957
oil on canvas
San Jose Museum of Art, California

John Bratby
Interior with Fireplace and Window at Greenwich
1957
oil on board
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

Stuart Davis
Premiere
1957
oil on canvas
Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Richard Diebenkorn
Women Outside
1957
oil on canvas
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto

Edward Giobbi
Portrait of Luisa
1957
oil on canvas
New Britain Museum of American Art, Connecticut

Mourlot Imprimeurs (Paris)
Jacques Villon
Windows at Metz Cathedral
1957
lithograph (poster)
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Justin O'Brien
Boy in Costume
1957
oil on panel
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

Ceri Richards
La Cathédrale Engloutie no. 3
1957
oil on canvas
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

Mark Rothko
#20
1957
oil on canvas
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Ruskin Spear
Winston Churchill
1957
oil on canvas
Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton, New Brunswick

Edwin Tanner
Track Man
1957
oil on canvas
Heide Museum of Modern Art, Bulleen, Australia

Holt Renfrew
Girl's Formal Dress
1957
embroidered cotton organdy
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto

Keith Vaughan
Figure against Blue Background
1957
oil on canvas
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

from The Quest

Spinning upon their central thirst like tops,

They went the Negative Way towards the Dry;
By empty caves beneath an empty sky

They emptied out their memories like slops,

Which made a foul marsh as they dried to death,

Where monsters bred who forced them to forget
The lovelies their consent avoided; yet,

Still praising the Absurd with their last breath,

They seeded out into their miracles:

The images of each grotesque temptation

Became some painter's happiest inspiration,

And barren wives and burning virgins came

To drink the pure cold water of their wells,

And wish for beaux and children in their name. 

– W.H. Auden (1940)