Wednesday, May 15, 2024

Ramsay - Cornell - Bellocq - Preston

Hugh Ramsay
Sketch of an Opera Scene in Paris
ca. 1901-1902
watercolor on paper
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Hugh Ramsay
Sketch of a Woman
ca. 1901-1902
wash drawing
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Hugh Ramsay
Lady in Blue
1902
oil on canvas
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

Hugh Ramsay
The Sisters
1904
(Ramsay died of TB in 1906 at age 29)
oil on canvas
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

Joseph Cornell
Les Caprices de Gizelle
1947
assemblage of wood, printed paper, collage and found objects
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Joseph Cornell
Untitled (for Stephanie)
ca. 1945
assemblage of wood, glass and found objects
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Joseph Cornell
Untitled
ca. 1950
assemblage of wood, glass, printed paper and found objects
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Joseph Cornell
Discarded Descartes
ca. 1954-56
assemblage of wood, glass and found objects
Menil Collection, Houston

E.J. Bellocq
Storyville Portrait, New Orleans
ca. 1912
modern gelatin silver print from glass negative
New Orleans Museum of Art

E.J. Bellocq
Storyville Portrait, New Orleans
ca. 1912
modern gelatin silver print from glass negative
San Jose Museum of Art, California

E.J. Bellocq
Storyville Portrait, New Orleans
ca. 1912
modern gelatin silver print from glass negative
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

E.J. Bellocq
Storyville Portrait, New Orleans
ca. 1912
modern gelatin silver print from glass negative
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Margaret Preston
Still Life
1926
oil on canvas
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

Margaret Preston
Red Bow
1925
hand-colored woodcut
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Margaret Preston
Pink Jug
1925
hand-colored woodcut
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Margaret Preston
Bowl of Native Flowers
1925
hand-colored woodcut
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

from For the Time Being

Alone, alone, about a dreadful wood
Of conscious evil runs a lost mankind,
Dreading to find its Father lest it find
The Goodness it has dreaded is not good:
Alone, alone, about our dreadful wood.

Where is that Law for which we broke our own,
Where now that Justice for which Flesh resigned
Her hereditary right to passion, Mind
His will to absolute power? Gone. Gone.
Where is that Law for which we broke our own?

The Pilgrim Way has led to the Abyss.
Was it to meet such grinning evidence
We left our richly odoured ignorance?
 Was the triumphant answer to be this?
The Pilgrim Way has led to the Abyss.

We who must die demand a miracle.
How could the Eternal do a temporal act,
The Infinite become a finite fact?
Nothing can save us that is possible:
We who must die demand a miracle.

– W.H. Auden (1941-42)