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| Ettore Sottsass Ashoka Lamp 1981 painted metal Denver Art Museum |
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| George Segal Blue Woman in Black Chair 1981 painted plaster and chair Blanton Museum of Art. Austin. Texas |
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| Elizabeth Murray Back on Earth 1981 oil on canvas Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Richard Diebenkorn Blue Club 1981 color etching Tacoma Art Museum, Washington State |
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| Burhan Dogançay Cahit Ribbon 47 1981 gouache on paper Los Angeles County Museum of Art |
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| Alain Fleischer Miroir Tiroir 1981 gelatin silver print Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Stephen Greene Prometheus #2 1981 oil on canvas McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas |
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| Len Jenshel Rosecliff, Newport R.I. 1981 C-print Portland Museum of Art, Maine |
-1981-screenprint-with-diamond-dust-Lowe-Art-Museum-University-of-Miami.jpeg) |
| Andy Warhol The Star (Greta Garbo) 1981 screenprint, with diamond dust Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami |
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| Cindy Sherman Untitled #86 1981 C-print Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Cindy Sherman Untitled #93 1981 C-print Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Beth Van Hoesen Poppies in an Oriental Bowl 1981 lithograph San Jose Museum of Art, California |
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| Wallace McGalliard Untitled 1981 C-print Los Angeles County Museum of Art |
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| Arja van den Berg Rabbit 1981 oil on panel Kunstmuseum, The Hague |
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| Rebecca Busselle Beginning a Headstand 1981 gelatin silver print Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York |
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| Bob Brooks Elizabeth Cashin McMillien 1981 gelatin silver print Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine |
Their Lonely Betters
As I listened from a beach-chair in the shade
To all the noises that my garden made,
It seemed to me only proper that words
Should be withheld from vegetables and birds.
A robin with no Christian name ran through
The Robin-Anthem which was all it knew,
And rustling flowers for some third party waited
To say which pairs, if any, should get mated.
Not one of them was capable of lying,
There was not one which knew that it was dying
Or could have with a rhythm or a rhyme
Assumed responsibility for time.
Let them leave language to their lonely betters
Who count some days and long for certain letters;
We, too, make noises when we laugh or weep:
Words are for those with promises to keep.
– W.H. Auden (ca. 1950)