Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Several Images of Aspiring Modernism (Twentieth Century)

Edward Baird
The Birth of Venus
1934
oil on canvas
National Galleries of Scotland

William Nicholson
Poppies in Pewter
ca. 1933-34
oil on panel
National Galleries of Scotland

William Nicholson
The lustre bowl with green peas
1911
oil on canvas
National Galleries of Scotland

from A Letter to Wallace Stevens

1

After the Reformation had settled the loamy soil
and the lettuce-green fields of dollars,
the clouds drifted away, and light fell everywhere.
Even the snow bloomed and New Hampshire was a big peony.

A red barn shone on a hill
with scattered hemlocks and white pines
and the gates of all the picket fences were big shut-eyes.

2

Sometime after the Civil War, the bronze wing of liberty
took off like the ribboning smoke of a Frick factory,
and all the citizens in towns from Stockbridge to Willamette
ran wild on the 4th. The sound of piccolos lingered,
and the shiny nickel of the sun stood still before it
fizzed in the windshield of a Ford.
By then you were a lawyer.

3

Charles Ives was a bandmaster in Danbury, and you didn't
give him the time of day. He played shortstop on the piano.
He never made it to his tonic home base, and his half-tones
were like oak leaves slapping clapboard.

– Peter Balakian (1996)

Samuel Peploe
Tulips - The Blue Jug
ca. 1919
oil on canvas
National Galleries of Scotland

Spencer Gore
Conversation Piece and Self-portrait
ca. 1910
oil on panel
National Galleries of Scotland

Spencer Gore
The Green Dress
ca. 1908-1909
oil on canvas
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

James Guthrie
Study for the portrait of Lady Helen Munro Ferguson
1909
drawing
National Galleries of Scotland

Avigdor Arikha
Library interior with Persian helmet, mirror, and books
1972
drawing
British Museum

John Singer Sargent
Detail of Palma Cathedral, Majorca
ca. 1908
drawing
National Galleries of Scotland

John Singer Sargent
Detail of Santa Maria della Salute, Venice
ca. 1904-1908
oil on canvas
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Anonymous Dutch photographer
Gallery at the Rijksmuseum with ancient artifacts in Modernist vitrines
ca. 1960
photograph
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

from Seven Penitential Psalms

                                                     6

There was a horse farm, long white paddocks, beside the railroad.
Can you see where this is going? Those horses were beautiful and – wet clover,
Loose fence posts – hard to keep safe. The day two mares and a gelding
Stopped an express (no humans hurt, train delayed while the track was cleared),
My brother slipped off to the scene. He craved blood, I think, because he'd
Reached the age that needs to feel beyond doubt that the world is real.

A boy, ten or twelve, on a bike; some horses; a train.

From the blue it comes back, and when I recall his crazy bravado, describing
What remained of the giants that once lipped apples from our palms, I'm surprised
At my rage: Who'd put horses there? Who a railroad? Who a boy?

– V. Penelope Pelizzon (2005)

James Havard Thomas
Woman thrashing rye, Valle di Pompei, Italy
before 1921
drawing (study for relief sculpture)
British Museum

Christopher Wood
Figure Study
before 1930
drawing
National Galleries of Scotland

Christopher Wood
Bridge over the Seine
1927
oil on canvas
British Government Art Collection

Ishbel McWhirter
Portrait of A.S. Neill, founder of Summerhill
1964
oil on canvas
National Galleries of Scotland

– poems from the archives of Poetry (Chicago)