Saturday, July 18, 2026

Visual Preferences (20th Century: 1932)

Milton Avery
Portrait of Annette Kaufman
1932
oil on panel
Portland Art Museum, Oregon

Max Beckmann
Gypsy Girl II (Ilonka)
1932
oil on canvas
Museum Ludwig, Cologne

Karl Blossfeldt
Bryonia alba
1932
photogravure
Akron Art Museum, Ohio

Pierre Bonnard
White Interior
1932
oil on canvas
Musée de Grenoble

James Brooks
Self Portrait
1932
oil on canvas
Dallas Museum of Art

Paul Citroen
Self Portrait with Camera
1932
gelatin silver print
Kunstmuseum, The Hague

Jean Dunand
Self Portrait
1932
mosaic of stone and glass tiles
Musées d'Art et d'Histoire, Genève

Arvid Fougstedt
The Balcony
1932
oil on canvas
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Don Freeman
Ballet from Band Wagon
1932
lithograph
Fralin Museum of Art, Charlottesville, Virginia

Honoré Guilbeau
Evening
1932
lithograph
Akron Art Museum, Ohio

Honoré Guilbeau
Night
1932
lithograph
Akron Art Museum, Ohio

Raymond Jonson
Variations on Rhythm P
1932
oil on canvas
Dallas Museum of Art

Martin Lewis
Cronies
1932
aquatint
Wichita Art Museum, Kansas

Leo John Meissner
Stairway
1932
wood-engraving
Seattle Art Museum

Lloyd Sargent
South Akard Street
1932
oil on canvas
Dallas Museum of Art

Steuben Glass Works
Diana Vase
1932
blown and engraved glass
Wichita Art Museum, Kansas

from Marginalia

Fate succumbs
many a species: one alone
jeopardises itself.

          *          *          *

Needing above all
silence and warmth, we produce
brutal cold and noise.

          *          *          * 

Wicked deeds have their glamour,
but those who commit them
are always bores.

          *           *         *

In semi-literate countries
demagogues pay
court to teen-agers.

          *           *          *

The Queen fled, leaving
books behind her
that shocked the pious usurper.

          *          *          *

Mulberries dropping,
twinges of lumbago,
as he read Clarendon.

– W.H. Auden (1965-68)