Saturday, May 23, 2026

Arrested Motion

Timoteo Viti
Study of Fleeing Figures
before 1523
drawing
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden


Peter Paul Rubens and workshop
Allegory of the Union of the Crowns of England and Scotland
(partial sketch for ceiling painting in the Banqueting House, Whitehall)
1633-34
oil on panel
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Paulus Pontius after Peter Paul Rubens
Massacre of the Innocents
1643
engraving (two plates)
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Alexander Runciman
The Landing of St. Margaret
1772
etched proof with hand-inked alterations
Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh

Giorgio Sommer
Eruption of Vesuvius
1872
albumen print
Minneapolis Institute of Art

Henri Rousseau
Les Joueurs de Football
1908
oil on canvas
Guggenheim Museum, New York

Magnus Zeller
The Orator
ca. 1920
oil on canvas
Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Lyubov Popova
Space Force Construction
1921
oil on panel
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Harry Sternberg
The Rings
1930
etching and aquatint
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Everett Shinn
Acrobat Falling
1930
oil on canvas
Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC

Robert Riggs
Club Fighter
1939
lithograph
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh

Elizabeth Olds
Skating
1942
screenprint
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

George Lovett Kingsland Morris
Commandos attacked by Dogs
1943
oil on linen
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Benton Murdoch Spruance
Forward Pass
1944
lithograph
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

James Yarnell
Cloudburst, Nebraska
1960
gelatin silver print
Wichita Art Museum, Kansas

Bob Thompson
The Spinning Spinning Turning Directing
1963
oil on canvas
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Sigmar Polke
The Devil from Berlin
2001
screenprint
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

Fred Tomaselli
Destroyer
2003
pigment and collage in resin on panel
Denver Art Museum, Colorado

Hell is Graduated

When I was employed at Cooperative Fashions, in spite of the dark, ugly old maid, I tried to steal some garters.  I was pursued down the superb staircases, not for the theft, but for my laziness at work and for my hatred of the innocent finery.  Descend, you are pursued.  The staircases are less beautiful in the offices than in the part open to the public.  The staircases are less beautiful in the "service" quarters than in the offices.  The staircases are still less beautiful in the cellar!  But what can I say of the marsh where I arrived?  What can I say of the laughter?  Of the animals that brushed by me, and of the whisperings of unseen creatures?  Water gave place to fire, to fear, to unconsciousness; when I came to myself I was in the hands of silent and nameless surgeons.

– Max Jacob (1924), translated by Elizabeth Bishop (ca. 1950)