Showing posts with label feathers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label feathers. Show all posts

Friday, August 29, 2025

Expectedness (Sixties)

Bob Thompson
Enchanted Rider
1961
oil on canvas
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC


Bob Thompson
An Allegory
1964
oil on linen
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Bob Thompson
Descent from the Cross
1963
oil on canvas
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Arnold Belkin
In Resplendent Places
1968
lithograph
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Arnold Belkin
Moses de Leon
1969
lithograph
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Gertrude Hermes
Bees
1963
color linocut
British Museum

Elaine Lustig Cohen
Boris Pasternak - I Remember
1960
lithograph (dust jacket)
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Elaine Lustig Cohen
The Hebrew Bible, Jewish Museum, New York
1963
offset-lithograph (exhibition poster)
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Jack Beal
Still Life with Plant and Mirrors
1965
oil on canvas
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Galina Bitt
Kinetische Zeichnung
1965
screenprint
Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC

Cristóbal Balenciaga
Hat
1964
dyed cockerel feathers mounted on rayon taffeta
Museo Cristóbal Balenciaga, Getaria, Spain

William Turnbull
Leaves, Blue
ca. 1967
lithograph
Fralin Museum of Art, Charlottesville, Virginia

Bridget Riley
Late Morning
1967-68
acrylic on canvas
Tate Modern, London

Ruth Gikow
The Kitchen
1960
oil on canvas
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Corneille (Guillaume Cornelis van Beverloo)
L'Heure Matinale
1967
lithograph
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane

Pablo Picasso
Dans l'Atelier
1965
aquatint and drypoint
Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC

David Plowden
Delaware and Hudson Railroad
Whitehall, New York

1965
gelatin silver print
Art Institute of Chicago

DRYDEN, JOHN (1630-1700) – The establisher and master of the stopped heroic couplet with variations of triplets and Alexandrines; the last great writer of dramatic blank verse, after he had given up the couplet for that use; master also of any other metre – the stopped heroic quatrain, lyrics of various forms, etc. – that he chose to try.  A deliberate student of prosody, on which he had intended to leave a treatise, but did not. 

COWPER, WILLIAM (1731-1800) – One of the first to protest, definitely and by name, against the "mechanic art" of Pope's couplet.  He himself returned to Dryden for that metre; but practised very largely in blank verse, and wrote lyrics with great sweetness, a fairly varied command of metre, and, in "Boadicea," "The Castaway," and some of his hymns, no small intensity of tone and cry.  His chief shortcoming, a preference of elision to substitution.  

– George Saintsbury, from Historical Manual of English Prosody (1910)

Wednesday, February 19, 2025

Plume Displays

Jean-Honoré Fragonard
Minerva
ca. 1772
oil on canvas
Detroit Institute of Arts

Willem van Mieris
Diana, Goddess of the Hunt
1686
oil on panel
Leiden Collection, New York

Alexander Roslin
Portrait of a Lady
1780
oil on canvas
Sinebrychoff Art Museum, Helsinki

Fritz Rumpf
South African Ostrich Feather Manufactory
1914
lithograph (poster)
Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Gustave van de Woestijne
Two Springs
1910
oil on canvas
Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp

Frederic Leighton
Portrait of May Sartoris
ca. 1860
oil on canvas
Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

Johann Spilberg the Younger
Jael
1644
oil on canvas
Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Nicolò dell'Abate
Man with Parrot
ca. 1535-40
oil on canvas
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Hans Rudolf Manuel Deutsch
Two Landsknechts
ca. 1550
drawing
Kupferstichkabinett, Kunstmuseum Basel

Gérard de Lairesse
Odysseus and Calypso
ca. 1680
oil on canvas
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Anselm Feuerbach
Nanna
ca. 1861
oil on canvas
Neue Pinakothek, Munich

Cornelis de Vos
Portrait of a Girl
ca. 1633-35
oil on canvas
Rhode Island School of Design, Providence

Aubin Vouet
David with the Head of Goliath
ca. 1630
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux

workshop of Guido Reni
David with the Head of Goliath
ca. 1635
oil on canvas
(copy of autograph original at the Louvre)
Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden

Daniel Mytens
Portrait of Charles I, King of England
1633
oil on canvas
Saint Louis Art Museum

Jan Thomas
Equestrian Portrait of Gundakar, Prince of Dietrichstein
1667
oil on canvas
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

from An Idea of Iowa

Who in their bleakest hour has not considered Iowa?
We live in a place where everything leans in

as if to confide in us, and learn, too late, it is a trick:
the frieze, the whole entablature must topple,

as the drunk on the bus, in the course of his life story,
anoints us with cidery spittle, as the ash

from a thousand fag-end sunsets settles on us.
But Iowa. A darkening indigo shimmer above tracts of corn,

yellow as far as the eye can see, yellow as the sun
in a child's first drawing.

– Caitríona O'Reilly, Geis (2015)

Thursday, January 9, 2025

Variations

Anonymous French Maklers
Bodice
ca. 1790
block-printed cotton lined with linen
Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia

Anonymous Indian Makers
Shawl
ca. 1800-1850
wool embroidered with silk
Art Institute of Chicago

Anonymous English Makers
Cap
ca. 1575-1625
linen embroidered with silk
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Anonymous English Makers
Cape
(refashioned paisley shawl imported from India)
ca. 1860-70
wool with silk lining
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto

Anonymous Indian Makers
Shawl
ca. 1825-50
wool embroidered with silk
Art Institute of Chicago

Mikhail Larionov for Ballets-Russes
Stage Costume for Buffoon's Wife
ca. 1921
silk and cotton
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Léon Bakst for Ballets-Russes
Stage Costume for Nymph
ca. 1912
silk chiffon
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Caroline Reboux
Hat
ca. 1927
wool felt
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Cristóbal Balenciaga
Hat
1962
silk satin, ribbon and ostrich feathers
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Elsa Schiaparelli
Hat
1948
wool felt, feathers and mink
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Anonymous Japanese Makers
Kimono
ca. 1920
tie-dyed silk
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Anonymous Japanese Makers
Kimono
ca. 1930
stencil-printed silk
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Anonymous Japanese Makers
Ainu Robe
19th century
cotton, with appliqué and embroidery
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto

John Tunnard for Ascher (London)
Scarf
1947
printed silk twill
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Anonymous Chinese Makerse
Court Robe
(component piece, uncut)
19th century
embroidered silk
Asian Art Museum, San Francisco

Rachel MacHenry (Toronto)
Man's Vest
ca. 1988-92
wool knit
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto

The Rock

Insignia
of the earth's
terrible recesses, spirit
of darkness, of 
the criminal mind, I feel
certain there is within you
something human, to be
approached in speech. How else
did you approach Eve
with your addictive 
information? I have paid
bitterly for her
lapse, therefore
attend to me. Tell me
how you live in hell,
what is required in hell, 
for I would send
my beloved there. Not
of course forever:
I may want him
back sometime, not
permanently harmed but
severely chastened,
as he has not been, here
on the surface. What
shall I give him for
protection, what
shield that will not
wholly screen him? You must be
his guide and master: help him
shed his skin
as you do, though in this case
we want him
older underneath, maybe
a little mousy. I feel confident
you understand these
subtleties – you seem
so interested, you do not
slide back under your rock! Oh
I am sure we are somehow related
even if you are not
human; perhaps I have
the soul of a reptile after all.

– Louise Glück (1996)

Tuesday, January 7, 2025

Dressing Well

Anonymous Canadian Makers
Boy's Day Dress
1862
roller-printed cotton
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto

Anonymous Indian Makers
Child's Tunic
ca. 1960
embroidered cotton and silk
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Anonymous American Makers
Child's Coat
ca. 1850
block-printed and roller-printed cotton
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto

Anonymous Australian Makers
Girls's Dress and Cape
ca. 1880
embroidered cotton
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Anonymous Japanese Makers
Boy's Kimono
ca. 1937-45
cotton stencil-printed with airplanes and helmets 
Asian Art Museum, San Francisco

Anonymous English Makers
Robe à la française
ca. 1750-60
Spitalfields silk with silver lace
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto

Anonymous English Makers
Robe à la française
ca. 1750-60
Spitalfields silk with silver lace
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto

Anonymous American Makers
Dress
ca. 1885
wool twill, silk embroidery, machine-made lace
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Anonymous Persian Makers
Coat worn by a Dervish
1857
(date the garment was purchased in Persia)
wool-felt patchwork lined with cotton
Ethnologisches Museum, Berlin

Anonymous Chinese Makers
Bridal Crown
19th century
metal frame embellished with multiple materials
Ethnologisches Museum, Berlin

Anonymous Chinese Makers
Bridal Robe
ca. 1875
embroidered silk
Art Institute of Chicago

Anonymous French Makers
Evening Jacket
ca. 1933
sequined silk
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Anonymous French Makers
Evening Coat
ca. 1920
embroidered and beaded silk satin with feathers
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

John Galliano for Dior
Dress with Hat
2000
hand-painted silk, nylon and leather
(back view)
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Telemachus' Kindness

When I was younger I felt 
sorry for myself
compulsively; in practical terms
I had no father; my mother
lived at her loom hypothesizing
her husband's erotic life; gradually
I realized no child on that island had
a different story; my trials
were the general rule, common
to all of us, a bond
among us, therefore
with humanity: what
a life my mother had, without
compassion for my father's
suffering, for a soul
ardent by nature, thus
ravaged by choice, nor had my father
any sense of her courage, subtly
expressed in inaction, being
himself prone to dramatizing, 
to acting out: I found
I could share these perceptions
with my closest friends, as they shared
theirs with me, to test them,
to refine them: as a grown man
I can look at my parents
impartially and pity them both: I hope
always to be able to pity them. 

– Louise Glück (1996)