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| Victor Brauner Unfolding Head 1954 watercolor on paper Menil Collection, Houston |
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| Stuart Davis Colonial Cubism 1954 oil on canvas Walker Art Center, Minneapolis |
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| Richard Diebenkorn Berkeley no. 8 1954 oil on canvas North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh |
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| Robert Doisneau Le Jeune Homme et Rita 1954 gelatin silver print Akron Art Museum, Ohio |
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| Jean Dubuffet Bestower of Blessings 1954 oil paint and lacquer on canvas McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas |
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| Marcel Duchamp Wedge of Chastity 1954 bronze and plastic Menil Collection, Houston |
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| Fernand Léger Picnic 1954 oil on canvas Museum Ludwig, Cologne |
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| Frank Lobdell July 1954 1954 oil on canvas Menil Collection, Houston |
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| Giorgio Morandi Still Life 1954 oil on canvas Kunstmuseum, The Hague |
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| Marlow Moss Composition in White, Blue, Yellow and Black 1954 oil on canvas Kunstmuseum, The Hague |
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| Aldo Pagliacci Untitled 1954 oil on canvas Nasher Museum of Art, Durham, North Carolina |
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| Pablo Picasso Portrait of Sylvette 1954 oil on canvas McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas |
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| James Reid Studio Portrait of Elvis Presley 1954 gelatin silver print Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Tennessee |
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| Grace Robertson Bermondsey Women's Pub Outing 1954 gelatin silver print Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York |
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| Charles Sheeler Stacks in Celebration 1954 oil on canvas Dayton Art Institute, Ohio |
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| Larry Silver Contestants, Muscle Beach, Santa Monica, California 1954 gelatin silver print Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington |
from Dichtung und Wahrheit (An Unwritten Poem)
XXXV
If we were total strangers (so that the possibility of a You-feeling on either side were excluded) and, accosting you in the street, I were to say I love You, you would not only understand exactly what I was saying but also have no doubt that I meant it; you would never think: – "Is this man deceiving himself or lying to me?" (Of course, you might be wrong: I might be accosting you in order to win a bet or make someone else jealous.) But we are not strangers and that is not what I mean (or not all that I mean). Whatever I may mean could not be equally well conveyed by gestures but can be expressed, if at all, in speech (that is why I wish to write this poem), and wherever speech is necessary, lying and self-deception are both possible.
XXXVI
I can pretend to others that I am not hungry when I am (I feel ashamed to admit I cannot afford a decent meal) or that I am hungry when I am not (my hostess's feelings will be hurt if I don't eat): But – Am I hungry or not? How hungry? It is difficult to imagine being uncertain or self-deceived as to the true answer.
XXXVII
I am slightly hungry; I am very hungry; I am starving: it is clear that I am speaking of three degrees of the same appetite. I love You a bit; I love You a lot; I love You madly: Am I still speaking of different degrees? Or of different kinds?
– W.H. Auden (1959)