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| Walter Askin Ostend 1970 oil on canvas Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, California |
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| Martin Barooshian Two Bluebirds 1970 color etching and woodcut New Britain Museum of American Art, Connecticut |
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| James Brooks Charbon 1970 lithograph Dallas Museum of Art |
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| Samuel Butnik See Through 1970 screenprint Akron Art Museum, Ohio |
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| Arnold Crane Minor White, Boston 1970 gelatin silver print Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Enrique De la Uz Man with Hook 1970 gelatin silver print NSU Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale, Florida |
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| Richard Diebenkorn Ocean Park no. 36 1970 oil on canvas Orange County Museum of Art, Costa Mesa, California |
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| Daniel Farber Passengers on the Barbara Lee 1970 dye imbibition print Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Lee Friedlander Car & Fence & Bush, San Diego, California 1970 toned gelatin silver print Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York |
-1970-lithograph-(poster)-Art-Institute-of-Chicago.jpg) |
| Edgardo Miguel Giménez Love (Butterfly) 1970 lithograph Art Institute of Chicago |
-Red-Edge-1970-screenprint-Fralin-Museum-of-Art-Charlottesville-Virginia.jpg) |
| Patrick Heron Magenta Disc, Red Edge 1970 screenprint Fralin Museum of Art, Charlottesville, Virginia |
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| Asger Jorn Origin of the Family 1970 color woodblock print NSU Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale, Florida |
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| Giacomo Manzù Head of Mr Meadows 1970 bronze Dallas Museum of Art |
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| Nicholas Monro Stone Circle 1970 screenprint Fralin Museum of Art, Charlottesville, Virginia |
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| Robert Motherwell No. 2, from Africa Series 1970 screenprint Akron Art Museum, Ohio |
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| Ray Parker Untitled #29 1970 oil and acrylic on canvas Akron Art Museum, Ohio |
The Chimaeras
Absence of heart – as in public buildings –
Absence of mind – as in public speeches –
Absence of worth – as in goods intended for the public –
Are telltale signs that a chimaera has just dined
On someone else; of him, poor foolish fellow,
Not a scrap is left, not even his name.
Indescribable – being neither this nor that –
Uncountable – being any number –
Unreal – being anything but where they are,
And ugly customers for someone to encounter,
It is our fault entirely if we do:
They cannot reach us; it is we who will touch them.
Curious from wantonness – to see what they are like –
Cruel from fear – to put a stop to them –
Incredulous from conceit – to prove they cannot be –
We prod or kick or measure and are lost:
The stronger we are the sooner all is over;
It is our strength with which they gobble us up.
If someone, being chaste, brave, humble,
Get by them safely, he is still in danger,
With pity remembering what once they were,
Of turning back to help them. Don't.
What they were once was what they would not be;
Not liking what they are not is what now they are.
No one can help them; walk on, keep on walking,
And do not let your goodness self-deceive you:
It is good that they are but not that they are thus.
– W.H. Auden (ca. 1950)