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| Salvador Dalí Birth of Liquid Desires 1931-32 oil and collage on canvas Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice |
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| Max Ernst Figure Humaine 1931 oil on plaster, mounted on panel Moderna Museet, Stockholm |
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| Peter Flötner Design for an Organ 1527 drawing Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin |
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| Ron Geibert Warmups - Mr. Dayton, Beavercreek, Ohio 1983 gelatin silver print San Diego Museum of Art |
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| Mitch Epstein New Orleans I, Louisiana 1974 dye transfer print Whitney Museum of American Art, New York |
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| Simphiwe Ndzube The Bloom of the Corpse Flower 2020 mixed media on canvas Denver Art Museum |
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| José Paez St Ignatius Loyola and St Louis Gonzaga adoring the Sacred Heart ca. 1770 oil on copper Denver Art Museum |
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| Kiki Smith My Blue Lake 1995 lithograph and photogravure Whitney Museum of American Art, New York |
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| Sam Taylor-Wood Brontosaurus 1995 video still Moderna Museet, Stockholm |
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| Jan Müller Parade of the Witches 1957 oil on panels (triptych) Whitney Museum of American Art, New York |
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| Justin McCarthy Brigitte and Bearson - Ice-Capades 1963 oil on board Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC |
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| Clément Massier Teacup and Saucer ca. 1890 painted earthenware Los Angeles County Museum of Art |
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| Ralston Crawford Penitentes, Sevilla 1972 gelatin silver print Whitney Museum of American Art, New York |
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| Gregory Crewdson Untitled 1991 C-print Los Angeles County Museum of Art |
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| Franck Gohier Coprolite National Park 2013 screenprint (poster) National Gallery of Australia, Canberra |
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| Jörg Sasse 8246 2000 C-print Guggenheim Museum, New York |
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| Robert Roberg Babylon the Great is Fallen 1992 acrylic, oil and tempera on canvas Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC |
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| Lucas Samaras Photo-Transformation 1976 manipulated Polaroid Whitney Museum of American Art, New York |
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| Laurie Simmons The Love Doll, Day 22 (20 Pounds of Jewelry) 2010 C-print Whitney Museum of American Art, New York |
A Narrow Escape
During a lull at dinner the vampire frankly
Confessed herself a symbol of the inner
Adventure. An old anxiousness took hold
Like a mesmerist hissing for each of us
To call up flitterings from within,
Crags and grottos, an olive dark that lured
Casements to loosen gleamings onto the Rhine.
More fluently than water she controlled
The vista. Later, von Blon said he had known
Her expressionless face before, her raven braids
– But where? A tale . . . a mezzotint? The tone
Was that of an 1830 pianoforte.
There followed for each a real danger of falling
Into the oubliette of that bland face,
Perfectly warned of how beneath it lay
The bat's penchant for sleeping all day long
Then flying off upon the wildest tangents
With little self-preserving shrieks, also
For ghastly scenes over letters and at meals,
Not to speak of positive evil, those nightly
Drainings of one's life, the blood, the laugh,
The cries for pardon, the indifferences –
And all performed with such a virtuoso's
Detachment from say their grandmothers' experience
That men in clubs would snort incredulously
Provided one escaped to tell the story.
It was then Charles thought to wonder, peering over
The rests of venison, what on earth a vampire
Means by an inner adventure. Her retort
Is now a classic in our particular circle.
– James Merrill (1959)