Showing posts with label 1950s. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1950s. Show all posts

Thursday, November 7, 2024

Denizens of the 1950s

Manolis Polymeris
Figure in Red
1951
oil on panel
National Gallery, Athens

Alberto Giacometti
Portrait of Annette
1958
oil on canvas
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Barry Kay
Design for Stage Costume
1954
drawing, with gouache and colored chalks
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Marie Laurencin
Fairy Flowers
1950
oil on canvas
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh

Noel Counihan
Académie
1954
drawing
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

Francis Bacon
Study for Figure IV
1956-57
oil on canvas
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

Panayiotis Tetsis
Portrait of Kiki Playiannakou
1954
oil on canvas
National Gallery, Athens

Panayiotis Tetsis
Portrait of Stel Nikolaidis
1955-56
oil on canvas
National Gallery, Athens

Yannis Moralis
Figure
1951
oil on canvas
National Gallery, Athens

Viktor Ivanov
Long Live Our Power!
The Homeland of Great Ideas!

1958
lithograph
Yale University Art Gallery

Yannis Tsarouhis
Sailor
1950
screenprint
National Gallery, Athens

Willem De Kooning
Untitled (Woman)
1951
drawing
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh

Eva Hesse
Figure Study
1957
drawing
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Dimitris Davis
Student
1957
oil on canvas
National Gallery, Athens

Svend Wiig Hansen
Walking Figure with Hanging Arms
1957
drawing
Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen

Graham Sutherland
The Oracle
1959
oil on canvas
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh

What can the shadow-like generations of man attain
But build up a dazzling mockery of delight that under their touch dissolves again?
Oedipus seemed blessed, but there is no man blessed amongst men.

Oedipus overcame the woman-breasted Fate;
He seemed like a strong tower against Death and first among the fortunate;
He sat upon the ancient throne of Thebes, and all men called him great.

But, looking for a marriage-bed, he found the bed of his birth,
Tilled the field his father had tilled, cast seed into the same abounding earth.
Entered through the door that had seen him wailing forth.

Begetter and begot as one! How could that be hid?
What darkness cover up that marriage-bed? Time watches, he is eagle-eyed.
And all the works of man are known and every soul is tried. 

Would you had never come to Thebes, nor to this house, 
Nor riddled with the woman-breasted Fate, beaten off Death and succoured us,
That I had never raised this song, heartbroken Oedipus!

– Sophocles, chorus from King Oedipus (429 BC), translated by W.B. Yeats (1928)

Thursday, October 24, 2024

Fifties Looks

Pancaldi of Bologna
Evening Shoes
ca. 1956
silk satin and leather
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Hermès
Gloves
ca. 1950
suede with broderie anglaise in silk
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Gabrielle Chanel
Hat
c1955
wool-felt-
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Esther Bubley
Untitled
1952
gelatin silver print
San Diego Museum of Art

Cristóbal Balenciaga
Cocktail Dress
ca. 1954
silk
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Yves Saint Laurent for Dior
Cocktail Dress
1959
silk taffeta
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Anonymous Milliner (USA)
Hat
ca. 1950
wool felt, silk veiling, feathers
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Jean Dessès
Evening Gown
ca. 1958
silk base trimmed with dyed-to-match machine-lace
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Charles James
Ballgown
1951
silk velvet, silk satin, silk faille
Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona

Norman Hartnell
Court Ensemble
1950
silk tulle with gold and silver lamé
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Louis Faurer
New York City
1951
gelatin silver print
Art Institute of Chicago

Pauline Trigère
Cocktail Dress and Bolero
ca. 1959
wool lined with silk
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Mainbocher
Ballgown
1955
silk faille
Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona

James Galanos
Ballgown
1956
metallic lace with silk satin bows
Philadelphia Museum of Art

André-Charles Biéler
Sous Bois
1951
oil on canvas
Ottawa Art Gallery, Ontario

Helen Rose
Wedding Gown for Grace Kelly
(fabricated at Metro Goldwyn Meyer in Hollywood)
1956
silk lace, silk faille, silk tulle, seed pearls
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Easy Knowledge

Between attention and attention, 
The first and last decision,
Is mortal distraction
Of earth and air,
Further and nearer,
The vague wants 
Of days and nights,
And personal error;
And the fatigued face,
Taking the strain
Of the horizontal force
And the vertical thrust,
Makes random answer
To the crucial test;
The uncertain flesh,
Scraping back chair
For the wrong train,
Falling in slush
Before a friend's friends
Or shaking hands
With a snub-nosed winner.

The opening window, closing door,
Open, close, but not
To finish or restore;
These wishes get
No further than
The edges of the town,
And leaning asking from the car
Cannot tell us where we are;
While the divided face
Has no grace,
No discretion,
No occupation
But registering
Acreage, mileage,
The easy knowledge
Of the virtuous thing.

– W.H. Auden (1930)

Saturday, February 3, 2024

Visual Relics (1957-1962)

Arthur Tress
Merry-Go-Round, Coney Island
1957
gelatin silver print
Brooklyn Museum

Aaron Siskind
Chicago Façade
1957
gelatin silver print
Yale University Art Gallery

Irving Penn
Ivy Compton-Burnett
1958
gelatin silver print
National Portrait Gallery, London

Sidney and Abraham Waintrob
Adelaide Milton de Groot
1958
gelatin silver print
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York

Sidney and Abraham Waintrob
Lorrie Goulet
ca. 1958
gelatin silver print
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York

Sidney and Abraham Waintrob
Peggy Guggenheim
1959
gelatin silver print
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York

Sidney and Abraham Waintrob
Edward Hopper
1961
gelatin silver print
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York

Harry Shunk
Yves Klein saut dans la vide, Paris
1960
gelatin silver print
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York

Bruce Davidson
Boy Sipping Tea, Not a Bum
1960
gelatin silver print
Yale Center for British Art

Bruce Davidson
London
1960
gelatin silver print
Yale Center for British Art

Mark Strizic
Buckley's, Bourke Street, Melbourne
ca. 1960
gelatin silver print
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Diane Arbus
A Very Thin Man in Central Park
1961
gelatin silver print
Brooklyn Museum

Rollie McKenna
Anne Sexton
1961
gelatin silver print
Yale University Art Gallery

Athol Shmith
Vivien Leigh as Camille
1961
hand-colored gelatin silver print
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Lee Friedlander
Baltimore
1962
gelatin silver print
Yale University Art Gallery

Bert Stern
Marilyn Monroe
1962
C-print
Brooklyn Museum

Then maddened by the fates, unhappy Dido
calls out at last for death; it tires her
to see the curve of heaven. That she may
not weaken in her plan to leave the light,
she sees, while placing offering on the altars
with burning incense – terrible to tell –
the consecrated liquid turning black,
the outpoured wine becoming obscene blood.

– Dido's misery, from Book IV of Virgil's Aeneid, translated by Allen Mandelbaum (1971)

Friday, February 2, 2024

Visual Relics (1951-1957)

Consuelo Kanaga
Mark Rothko
1951
gelatin silver print
Brooklyn Museum

Max Dupain
At Newport
1952
gelatin silver print
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

John Deakin
Self Portrait
1952
bromide print
National Portrait Gallery, London

N. Jay Jaffee
Brooklyn Plaza
1953
selenium-toned gelatin silver print
Brooklyn Museum

Vivian Cherry
3rd Avenue El
(14th Street Station, Window, Large Stove)

1955
gelatin silver print
Brooklyn Museum

Vivian Cherry
Watching the Tearing-Down of the 3rd Avenue El
1955
gelatin silver print
Brooklyn Museum

Vivian Cherry
Watching the Tearing-Down of the 3rd Avenue El
1955
gelatin silver print
Brooklyn Museum

Cecil Beaton
Ninette de Valois
1955
bromide print
National Portrait Gallery, London

Marion Wesp
Archipenko and Students at his Studio in Woodstock
ca. 1955
gelatin silver print
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York

Peter Basch
Elizabeth Taylor
1955
bromide print
National Portrait Gallery, London

Chim (David Seymour)
Ingrid Bergman
with her son Robertino Rossellini

1956
gelatin silver print
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
(Achenbach Foundation)

Chim (David Seymour)
Audrey Hepburn
on the set of Funny Face, Paris

1956
gelatin silver print
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
(Achenbach Foundation)

Sidney and Abraham Waintrob
Raphael Soyer
1956
gelatin silver print
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York

Sidney and Abraham Waintrob
Robert Motherwell
1957
gelatin silver print
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York

Bruno Benini
Gretta Miers in Cocktail Dress and Cape
at the National Gallery of Victoria

1956
gelatin silver print
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Bruno Benini
Janet Dawson in Evening Gown and Wrap
1957
gelatin silver print
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

But though he longs to soften, soothe her sorrow
and turn aside her troubles with sweet words,
though groaning long and shaken in his mind
because of his great love, nevertheless
pious Aeneas carries out the gods'
instructions. Now he turns back to his fleet.

At this the Teucrians indeed fall to.
They launch their tall ships all along the beach;
they set their keels, well-smeared with pitch, afloat.
The crewmen, keen for flight, haul from the forest
boughs not yet stripped of leaves to serve as oars
and timbers still untrimmed.

– the Trojans prepare to depart, from Book IV of Virgil's Aeneid, translated by Allen Mandelbaum (1971)