Saturday, October 12, 2024

Manet - Zwart - Tosani - Schiaparelli

Édouard Manet
Flowers in a Crystal Vase
ca. 1882
oil on canvas
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Édouard Manet
Still Life with White Peonies
ca. 1880
oil on canvas
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Édouard Manet
Oysters
1862
oil on canvas
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Édouard Manet
Still Life with Melon and Peaches
1866
oil on canvas
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Piet Zwart
International Film Festival - The Hague
1928
lithograph (poster)
Art Institute of Chicago

Piet Zwart
Housing Rental Office - The Hague
1923
color letterpress
Art Institute of Chicago

Piet Zwart
Modular Kitchen Fittings designed for Bruynzeel of Rotterdam
1938
wood and metal
Kunstmuseum, The Hague

Piet Zwart
Shadow
ca. 1926
gelatin silver print
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Patrick Tosani
Rain in Parentheses
1986
C-print
Art Institute of Chicago

Patrick Tosani
H
1988
C-print
private collection

Patrick Tosani
Portrait #4
1985
C-print
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

Patrick Tosani
Portrait #23
1985
C-print
Art Institute of Chicago

Elsa Schiaparelli
Evening Coat
1939
pieced and embroidered wool felt
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Elsa Schiaparelli
Evening Gown
1938
printed silk crepe
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Elsa Schiaparelli
Evening Gown
1939
silk satin and silk faille
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Elsa Schiaparelli
Evening Gown
1939
silk satin
Philadelphia Museum of Art

The Exiles

What siren zooming is sounding our coming
Up frozen fjord forging from freedom,
          What shepherd's call
          When stranded on hill,
          With broken axle
          On track to exile?

With labelled luggage we alight at last,
Joining joking at the junction on the moor,
          With practised smile
          And harmless tale
          Advance to meet
          Each new recruit.

Expert from uplands, always in oilskins,
Recliner from library, laying down law,
          Owner from shire,
          All meet on this shore,
          Facing each prick
          With ginger pluck.

Our rooms are ready, the register signed,
There is time to take a turn before dark,
          See the blistered paint
          On the scorching front,
          Or icicle sombre
          On pierhead timber.

To climb the cliff path to the coastguard's point
Past the derelict dock deserted by rats,
          Look from concrete sill
          Of fort for sale
          To the bathers' rocks,
          The lovers' ricks.

Our boots will be brushed, our bolsters pummelled,
Cupboards are cleared for keeping our clothes:
          Here we shall live
          And somehow love
          Though we only master
          The sad posture.

Picnics are promised and planned for July
To the wood with the waterfall, walks to find
          Traces of birds,
          A mole, a rivet,
          In factory yards
          Marked strictly private.

There will be skating and curling at Christmas – indoors
Charades and ragging, then riders pass
          Some afternoons
          In snowy lanes,
          Shut in by wires
          Surplus from wars.

In Spring we shall spade the soil on the border
For blooming of bulbs, we shall bow in Autumn,
         When trees make passes,
         As high gale pushes,
         And bewildered leaves
         Fall on our lives.

Watching through windows the wastes of evening,
The flare of foundries at fall of the year,
          The slight despair
          At what we are,
          The marginal grief
          Is source of life.

In groups forgetting the gun in the drawer
Need pray for no pardon, are proud till recalled
          By music on water
          To lack of stature,
          Saying Alas
          To less and less.

Till holding our hats in our hands for talking,
Or striding down streets for something to see,
          Gas-light in shops,
          The face of ships,
          And the tide-wind
          Touch the old wound.

Till our nerves are numb and their now is a time
Too late for love or for lying either,
          Grown used at last
          To having lost,
          Accepting dearth,
          The shadow of death.

– W.H. Auden (1930)