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| Dorothy Eisner Desk II 1979 oil on canvas Portland Museum of Art, Maine |
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| Eve Arnold Art Class, Chungking 1979 dye transfer print San Diego Museum of Art |
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| Alighiero Boetti Reflexive Verbs 1979 silk embroidery on textile backing Kunstmuseum, The Hague |
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| Harry Callahan Calais, Maine 1979 dye transfer print San Diego Museum of Art |
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| Mario Algaze Manuel Alvarez Bravo 1979 gelatin silver print Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami |
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| Richard Avedon Francis Bacon 1979 gelatin silver print San Jose Museum of Art, California |
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| Richard Estes New York Pressing Machinery Corp. 1979 screenprint Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami |
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| Howard Hodgkin For Bernard Jacobson 1979 hand-colored lithograph North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh |
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| John Furnival Omphale Goes Out Walking 1979 aquatint Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami |
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| André Kertész 24 Oct 79 1979 Polaroid Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York |
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| Frank Lobdell Sag no. 9 1979 gouache and colored chalks on paper San Jose Museum of Art, California |
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| Anton Heyboer 2+ 1979 oil on canvas Kunstmuseum, The Hague |
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| Eric Lindbloom Untitled #2 1979 gelatin silver print Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York |
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| Richard Misrach Cypress Trees (Louisiana series) 1979 C-print New Orleans Museum of Art |
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| David Mecalco El Santo gives Thanks to the Dear Virgin for winning the Lucha Libre championship 1979 paint on metal (ex voto) Fowler Museum at UCLA |
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| David Graham Marge Gapp's Studio, Philadelphia 1979 C-print Art Institute of Chicago |
from Precious Five
Praise, tongue, the Earthly Muse
By number and by name
In any style you choose,
For nimble tongues and lame
Have both found favor; praise
Her port and sudden ways,
Now fish-wife and now queen,
Her reason and unreason:
Though freed from that machine,
Praise Her revolving wheel
Of appetites and seasons
In honor of Another,
The old self you become
At any drink or meal,
That animal of taste,
And of his twin, your brother,
Unlettered, savage, dumb,
Down there below the waist:
Although your style be fumbling,
Half stutter and half song,
Give thanks however bumbling,
Telling for Her dear sake
To whom all styles belong
The truth She cannot make.
Be happy, precious five,
So long as I'm alive
Nor try to ask me what
You should be happy for;
Think, if it helps, of love
Or alcohol or gold,
But do as you are told.
I could (which you cannot)
Find reasons fast enough
To face the sky and roar
In anger and despair
At what is going on,
Demanding that it name
Whoever is to blame:
The sky would only wait
Till all my breath was gone
And then reiterate
As if I wasn't there
That singular command
I do not understand,
Bless what there is for being,
Which has to be obeyed, for
What else am I made for,
Agreeing or disagreeing?
– W.H. Auden (1950)