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| Robert Mangold Distorted Circle within a Polygon 1972 acrylic paint and graphite on canvas Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, North Carolina |
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| Peter Max Satichananda Guru, Teacher of Light 1972 screenprint Wichita Art Museum, Kansas |
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| Alice Neel Vera Beckerhoff 1972 oil on canvas Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston |
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| Georgia O'Keeffe Black Rock with Blue Sky and White Clouds 1972 oil on canvas Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Claes Oldenburg Proposal for a Feasible Monument in the Form of Melting Butter 1972 watercolor and crayon on paper Seattle Art Museum |
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| Nathan Oliveira Smiling Head 1972 oil on canvas Wichita Art Museum, Kansas |
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| Stephen Posen Untitled, from Documenta 1972 lithograph NSU Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale, Florida |
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| Jan Sæther Portrait of actor Nils Ole Oftebro 1972 oil on canvas Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo |
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| Frank Stella Nasielk IV 1972 varnished ash Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Hans Krondahl for Katja of Sweden Lagoon 1972 screen-printed cotton fabric panel Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Julian Trevelyan Rowers 1972 etching and aquatint Fralin Museum of Art, Charlottesville, Virginia |
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| Andy Warhol Mao 1972 screenprint and acrylic paint on linen Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Andy Warhol Mao 1972 screenprint on paper NSU Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale, Florida |
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| Andy Warhol Mao 1972 screenprints on paper Orange County Museum of Art, Costa Mesa, California |
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| Shedrich Williams Untitled 1972 gelatin silver print Tacoma Art Museum, Washington State |
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| Jack Youngerman Untitled 1972 screenprint Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami |
The Old Man's Road
Over ploughland, woodland, cow meadows,
Giving wide berth to an old Cathedral,
Running smack through a new Town Hall,
Unlookable for, by logic, by guess:
Yet some strike it, and are struck fearless.
No life can know it, but no life
That sticks to this course can be made captive,
And who wander with it, are not stopped at
Borders by guards of some Theocrat,
Crossing the pass so almost where
His searchlight squints but no closer
(And no further where it might by chance):
So in summer sometimes, without hindrance,
Apotropaically scowling, a tinker
Shuffles past, in the waning year
Potters a coleopterist, poking
Through yellow leaves, and a youth in spring
Trots by after a new excitement,
His true self, hot on the scent.
The Old Man leaves his Road to those
Who love it no less since it lost purpose,
Who never ask what History is up to,
So cannot act as if they knew:
Assuming a freedom its Powers deny,
Denying its Powers, they pass freely.
– W.H. Auden (1955)