Monday, July 27, 2026

Visual Preferences (20th Century: 1941)

Anonymous Artist
Know the Facts!
1941
screenprint (WPA poster)
Art Institute of Chicago

Robert Brackman
Portrait of arts patron Abby Aldrich Rockefeller
1941
oil on canvas
Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia

Mstislav Dobuzhinsky
Stage Design for Ballet Imperial by George Balanchine
1941
watercolor on paper
McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas

Max Ernst
Day and Night
1941
oil on canvas
Menil Collection, Houston

William Austin Kienbusch
Interior - Studio
1941
oil on canvas
Portland Museum of Art, Maine

Henri Matisse
Woman with Drawing
1941
drawing
Nasher Museum of Art, Durham, North Carolina

Guillermo Meza
Adam and Eve
1941
oil on canvas
Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, Texas

Pablo O'Higgins
Judas
1941
watercolor on paper
Dallas Museum of Art

Pablo Picasso
Seated Woman
1941
oil on canvas
Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich

Eric Ravilious
Shelling by Night
1941
watercolor on paper
Tate Britain

Anton Refregier
Building the Mission Dolores - 1776
1941
watercolor and tempera on board
(competition design for Rincon Annex mural, San Francisco)
Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York

Anton Refregier
Building the Golden Gate Bridge - 1933
1941
watercolor and tempera on board
(competition design for Rincon Annex mural, San Francisco)
Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York

William Roberts
The Control Room
1941
oil on canvas
Salford Museum and Art Gallery, Manchester

Miklós Suba
York Street / Flint Street Corner (House in Shadow)
1941
oil on panel
McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas

Graham Sutherland
Devastation 1941 - East End - Burnt Paper - Warehouse
1941
gouache and pastel on paper
Tate Britain

Jacques Villon
Caliban
1941
drypoint
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts

from Academic Graffiti

George Herbert
Once tried ordering sherbet
On Salisbury Plain:
He ordered in vain.

          *          *          *

Sir Rider Haggard
Was completely staggered
When his bride-to-be
Announced, "I AM SHE!"

          *          *          *

Thomas Hardy
Was never tardy
When summoned to fulfill
The Immanent Will.

          *          *          *

No one could ever inveigle
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Into offering the slightest apology
For his Phenomenology.

          *          *          *

When Karl Marx
Found the phrase "financial sharks,"
He sang a Te Deum
In the British Museum.

          *          *          *

Mr. Robert Liston
Used his saw like a piston:
He was that elated
When he amputated.

– W.H. Auden (1952-70)