Saturday, October 3, 2026

Visual Preferences (20th Century: 1985)

Beverly Hallam
Orange Prince
1985
acrylic on linen
Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine

Robert Mapplethorpe
Sean Young
1985
gelatin silver print
Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Dianne Blell
The Origin of Drawing
1985
C-print
New Britain Museum of American Art, Connecticut

Marsha Burns
Robert
1985
gelatin silver print
Tacoma Art Museum, Washington State

John Divola
Untitled
1985
dye imbibition print
Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Robert Motherwell
Perpetual Summer
1985
aquatint and collage
McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas

Robert Motherwell
The Redness of Red
1985
screenprint, lithograph and collage
McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas

Duane Michals
Willem de Kooning
1985
gelatin silver print
Portland Museum of Art, Maine

Agnes Martin
Untitled #2
1985
acrylic on canvas
Seattle Art Museum

Jörg Immendorff
Electric Painting - Singender Panzer
1985
oil on canvas
Dallas Museum of Art

Barbara Kruger
Untitled (You substantiate our horror)
1985
gelatin silver print
Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Anonymous Designer
André Kertész: de Paris et de New York
1985
offset-print
(exhibition poster)
Museum Folkwang, Essen

Jud Nelson
Shirts IV: Van Heusen
1985
marble
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

Louise Nevelson
Untitled
1985
painted wood
Dayton Art Institute, Ohio

Louise Nevelson
Untitled
1985
painted wood
New Britain Museum of American Art, Connecticut

Issey Miyake
Coat
1985
paper (mulberry fiber)
Los Angeles County Museum of Art

from Shorts

A Young Person came out of the mists,
Who had the most beautiful wrists;
     A scandal occurred
     Which has long been interred,
But the legend about them persists.

             *                *              *

As the poets have mournfully sung,
Death takes the innocent young,
     The rolling in money,
     The screamingly funny,
And those who are very well hung.

              *                 *              *

Fair is Middle Earth nor changes, though to Age,
Raging at his uncomeliness,
Her wine turn sour, her bread tasteless.

– W.H. Auden (1954)