John Bleaney High Falutin' Card Deck: Laurie Anderson c1985- offset-print- National Gallery of Australia, Canberra |
John Bleaney High Falutin' Card Deck: Diane Arbus ca. 1985 offset print National Gallery of Australia, Canberra |
John Bleaney High Falutin' Card Deck: Cindy Sherman ca. 1985 offset print National Gallery of Australia, Canberra |
John Bleaney High Falutin' Card Deck: Jenny Holzer ca. 1985 offset print National Gallery of Australia, Canberra |
Jenny Holzer Selection from the Living Series 1980-82 enamel on metal National Gallery of Australia, Canberra |
Jenny Holzer Selection from the Living Series 1980-82 enamel on metal National Gallery of Australia, Canberra |
Jenny Holzer Selection from the Living Series 1980-82 enamel on metal National Gallery of Australia, Canberra |
Jenny Holzer Enclosure (Deep Red) 2006 oil on linen (two panels) Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston |
George Platt Lynes R.X. McCarthy and John Leapheart 1952 gelatin silver print National Gallery of Australia, Canberra |
George Platt Lynes R.X. McCarthy and John Leapheart 1952 gelatin silver print National Gallery of Australia, Canberra |
George Platt Lynes Robert McVoy ca. 1941 gelatin silver print National Gallery of Australia, Canberra |
George Platt Lynes Tex Smutney and Buddy Stanley 1941 gelatin silver print National Gallery of Australia, Canberra |
Cindy Sherman Untitled #72 1980 C-print Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney |
Cindy Sherman Untitled Film Still #35 1979 gelatin silver print Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney |
Cindy Sherman Untitled Film Still #46 1979 gelatin silver print Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney |
Cindy Sherman Untitled Film Still #52 1979 gelatin silver print National Gallery of Australia, Canberra |
from The Quest
Suppose he's listened to the erudite committee,
He would have only found where not to look;
Suppose his terrier when he whistled had obeyed,
It would not have unearthed the buried city;
Suppose he had dismissed the careless maid,
The cryptogram would not have fluttered from the book.
"It was not I," he cried as, healthy and astounded,
He stepped across a predecessor's skull;
"A nonsense jingle simply came into my head
And left the intellectual Sphinx dumbfounded;
I won the Queen because my hair was red;
The terrible adventure is a little dull."
Hence Failure's torment: "Was I doomed in any case,
Or would I not have failed had I believed in Grace?"
– W.H. Auden (1940)