Spectacles

Edward Weston
Violet Romer with Peacock Fan
ca. 1917
gelatin silver print
Museum of Modern Art, New York

Gaspare Venturini
Allegory of the House of Este
1592-93
oil on canvas
Galleria Estense, Modena

Massimo Vignelli
Piccolo Teatro di Milano
1964
lithograph (poster)
Museum of Modern Art, New York

Carl Christian Vogel von Vogelstein
Dante surrounded by ten episodes from the Divine Comedy
ca. 1842-44
oil on paper
Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence

Weegee
Time Is Short
ca. 1942
gelatin silver print
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Andy Warhol
Nine Marilyns
1979-86
screenprint on linen
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

David Wojnarowicz
Earth
1987
acrylic and collage on panel
Museum of Modern Art, New York

David Wojnarowicz
Fire
1987
acrylic and collage on panel
Museum of Modern Art, New York

David Wojnarowicz
Water
1987
acrylic and collage on panel
Museum of Modern Art, New York

David Wojnarowicz
Wind (for Peter Hujar)
1987
acrylic and collage on panel
Museum of Modern Art, New York

Thomas Frederick Arndt
Inauguration Parade, Washington DC
1989
gelatin silver print
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Larry Towell
Untitled [Manhattan, September 11]
2001
digital print
Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York

Bob Thompson
St Matthew's Description of the End of the World
1964
oil on canvas
Museum of Modern Art, New York

Pavel Tchelitchew
Stage Design for Der Blaue Cabaret Theatre, Berlin
ca. 1920-23
tempera on paper
Museum of Modern Art, New York

Anonymous Flemish painter after engraving by Jacques Callot
Fiera di San Luca at Impruneta in Florence
after 1620
oil on canvas
Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels

Joe Zucker
Pirate Junk with Gang Plank
1977
felt pen on paper
Museum of Modern Art, New York

Edith Tudor-Hart
Chelsea Flower Show
ca. 1935
gelatin silver print
Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh

Somewhere or Other

Somewhere or other there must surely be

        The face not seen, the voice not heard,

The heart that not yet – never yet – ah me!

        Made answer to my word.

Somewhere or other, may be near or far; 

        Past land and sea, clean out of sight;

Beyond the wandering moon, beyond the star

        That tracks her night by night.

Somewhere or other, may be far or near;

        With just a wall, a hedge, between;

With just the last leaves of the dying year

        Fallen on a turf grown green.

– Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)

Foregathered

Liberale da Verona
Triumph of Fame
ca. 1470
tempera on panel
Museo del Settecento Veneziano, Ca' Rezzonico, Venice

Anonymous French Artist - School of Fontainebleau
Triumph of Chastity
ca. 1560
oil on canvas
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

Jacob Hoefnagel
Triumph of Autumn
1605
oil on copper
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts

Dirck Hals (figures) and Dirck van Delen (architecture)
Festive Company in Renaissance Interior
1628
oil on panel
Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem

Gerard van Opstal
Lidded Mug with Triumph of Silenus
ca. 1640
ivory with gilt-bronze mount
Musée du Louvre

Angelo Trevisani
Triumph of Scipio
ca. 1700-1725
oil on canvas
Newport Mansions Preservation Society, Rhode Island

Edme Bouchardon
Masquerade
ca. 1723-32
drawing (print study)
Musée du Louvre

Hugues Taraval
The Waking of Cupid
1781
oil on canvas (overdoor)
Wallace Collection, London

Felice Giani
Altar erected by the invading French in St Peter's Square for Napoleonic festival
1798
oil on canvas
Museo di Roma a Palazzo Braschi

 

Anonymous Italian Printmaker
Masquerade in Rome
1813
etching
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Eugène Boudin
Concert at the Casino, Deauville
1865
oil on canvas
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Bernardo Ferrándiz Bádenes
Festival in Málaga
1872
oil on canvas
Colección Bellver, Sevilla

Simeon Solomon
Greek Festival
1873
oil on paper, mounted on canvas
Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin

Camille Pissarro
Study of Outdoor Market
ca. 1900-1901
ink, gouache and wash on paper
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Domenico Cucchiari
Parish Festival
1926
oil on canvas
Palazzo Cybo Malaspina, Carrara

Felix Nussbaum
Masquerade
ca. 1939
oil on canvas
Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago

Max Beckmann
Baccarat
1947
oil on canvas
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri

Commendatory Verse, printed in the first edition (1623) of The Duchess of Malfi

In the most worth of that well-deserver, Mr. John Webster, and upon this masterpiece of tragedy.

        In this thou imitat'st one rich, and wise,

        That sees his good deeds done before he dies;

        As he by works, thou by this work of fame,

        Hast well provided for thy living name.

        To trust to other's honourings is worth's crime –

        Thy monument is rais'd in thy life-time;

        And 'tis most just; for every worthy man

        Is his own marble, and his merit can

        Cut him to any figure and express

        More art than Death's cathedral palaces,

        Where royal ashes keep their court. Thy note

        Be ever plainness, 'tis the richest coat:

        Thy epitaph only the title be –

        Write, 'Duchess', that will fetch a tear for thee,

        For who e'er saw this duchess live, and die,

        That could get off under a bleeding eye?

– Thomas Middleton

Paula Scher

Paula Scher
One on One - Bob James, Earl Klugh
1979
offset-lithograph (record sleeve)
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Paula Scher
Manhattan Records
ca. 1985
offset-lithograph (sample record labels)
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Paula Scher
Manhattan Records
ca. 1987
offset-lithograph (record label)
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Paula Scher
The big A
1991
screenprint
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Paula Scher
The Public Theater - New York
1994
offset-lithograph (flyer)
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Paula Scher
Simpatico - The Public Theater - New York
1994
offset-lithograph (poster)
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Paula Scher
Him - The Public Theater - New York
1994
screenprint (poster)
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Paula Scher
New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park
1994
offset-lithograph (poster)
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Paula Scher
The Public Theater - New York
1996
offset-lithograph (poster)
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Paula Scher
The Best of Tappan Zee
ca. 1997
offset-lithograph (record sleeve)
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Paula Scher
Space - The Public Theater - New York
1999
offset-lithograph (poster)
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Paula Scher
Ballet Tech - The Joyce Theater - New York
1999
screenprint (poster)
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Paula Scher
Book of the Dead (Second Avenue)
The Public Theater - New York
2000
offset-lithograph (poster)
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Paula Scher
Shakespeare in the Park - The Public Theater - New York
2007
offset-lithograph (poster)
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Paula Scher
Public - San Francisco
2012
offset-lithograph
(advertising poster for brand of bicycles)
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Paula Scher
Sundance Film Festival
2013
offset-lithograph (poster)
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Paula Scher
You, Me - for Poster House, New York
2020
digital poster
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

from The Consolation of Philosophy

    Alas! what laws can Lovers awe?

Love is it self the greatest Law!

Or who can such hard bondage brook

To be in Love, and not to Look?

Poor Orpheus almost in the light

Lost his dear Love for one short sight;

And by those eyes, which Love did guide,

What he most lov'd unkindly dyed!

    This tale of Orpheus and his Love

Was meant for you, who ever move

Upwards, and tend into that light,

Which is not seen by mortal sight.

For if, while you strive to ascend,

You droop, and towards Earth once bend

Your seduc'd Eyes, down you will fall

Ev'n while you look, and forfeit all.

– Boethius (AD 476-524), translated by Henry Vaughan (1678)