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| Alicia Austin Black God's Shadow 1977 watercolor and ink on paper New Britain Museum of American Art, Connecticut |
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| Jay Backstrand Stepping Down 1 & 2 1977 mixed media on canvas Tacoma Art Museum |
-1977-gelatin-silver-print-Seattle-Art-Museum.jpg) |
| Marsha Burns Untitled (L.V.D.) 1977 gelatin silver print Seattle Art Museum |
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| Jo Ann Callis Man with Tie 1977 dye imbibition print Los Angeles County Museum of Art |
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| William Christenberry Corn Sign with Storm near Greensboro, Alabama 1977 C-print Akron Art Museum, Ohio |
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| Langdon Clay Tablesetting - Natchez, Mississippi 1977 C-print Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Salvador Dali Les Diners de Gala 1977 lithograph NSU Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale, Florida |
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| Karel Appel Sitting in a Landscape 1977 acrylic on paper, mounted on canvas McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas |
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| Dieter Appelt The Mark on the Mirror made by Breathing 1977 gelatin silver print Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Willem De Kooning Untitled 1977 oil on paper, mounted on panel Dayton Art Institute, Ohio |
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| Roy Dean De Forest Slow Time in Arcadia 1977 acrylic on canvas San Jose Museum of Art, California |
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| Robert Motherwell The Times, London, August 6 1977 acrylic paint, charcoal and collage on board McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas |
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| Robert Cumming Edith Head and her Miniature Sewing Machine Collection (Miss Head's Bungalow) 1977 gelatin silver print Los Angeles County Museum of Art |
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| Larry Fink Benefit - The Museum of Modern Art, New York City 1977 gelatin silver print Akron Art Museum, Ohio |
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| Ronald Davis Parallelepiped Vents #545 1977 acrylic on canvas Los Angeles County Museum of Art |
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| Jim Dine Multicolored Robe 1977 hand-colored lithograph and etching Dallas Museum of Art |
from Memorial for the City
III
Across the square,Between the burnt-out Law Courts and Police Headquarters,
Past the Cathedral far too damaged to repair,
Around the Grand Hotel patched up to hold reporters,
Near huts of some Emergency Committee,
The barbed wire runs through the abolished City.
Across the plains,
Between two hills, two villages, two trees, two friends,
The barbed wire runs which neither argues nor explains
But, where it likes, a place, a path, a railroad ends,
The humor, the cuisine, the rites, the taste,
The pattern of the City, are erased.
Across our sleep
The barbed wire also runs: It trips us so we fall
And white ships sail without us though the others weep,
It makes our sorry fig-leaf at the Sneerers' Ball,
It ties the smiler to the double-bed,
It keeps on growing from the witch's head.
Behind the wire
Which is behind the mirror, our Image is the same
Awake or dreaming: It has no image to admire,
No age, no sex, no memory, no creed, no name,
It can be counted, multiplied, employed
In any place, at any time destroyed.
Is It our friend?
No, that is our hope; that we weep and It does not grieve,
That for It the wire and the ruins are not the end:
This is the flesh we are but never would believe,
The flesh we die but it is death to pity;
This is Adam waiting for His City.
Let Our Weakness speak
IV
Without me Adam would have fallen irrevocably with Lucifer; he
would never have been able to cry O felix culpa.
It was I who suggested his theft to Prometheus; my frailty cost
Adonis his life.
I heard Orpheus sing; I was not quite as moved as they say.
I was not taken in by the sheep's-eyes of Narcissus; I was angry with
Psyche when she struck a light.
I was in Hector's confidence; so far as it went.
Had he listened to me Oedipus would never have left Corinth; I cast
no vote at the trial of Orestes.
I fell asleep when Diotima spoke of love; I was not responsible for
the monsters that tempted St. Anthony.
To me the Saviour permitted His Fifth Word from the cross; to be a
stumbling-block to the stoics.
I was the unwelcome third at the meetings of Tristan and Isolda;
they tried to poison me.
I rode with Galahad on his Quest for the San Graal; without
understanding I kept his vow.
I was the just impediment to the marriage of Faustus with Helen; I
know a ghost when I see one.
With Hamlet I had no patience; but I forgave Don Quixote all for
his admission in the cart.
I was the missing entry in Don Giovanni's list; for which he could
never account.
I assisted Figaro the Barber in all his intrigues; when Prince Tamino
arrived at wisdom I too obtained my reward.
I was innocent of the sin of the Ancient Mariner; time after time I
warned Captain Ahab to accept happiness.
As for Metropolis, that too-great city; her delusions are not mine.
Her speeches impress me little, her statistics less; to all who dwell on
Her speeches impress me little, her statistics less; to all who dwell on
the public side of her mirrors, resentments and no peace.
At the place of my passion her photographers are gathered together;
but I shall rise again to hear her judged.
– W.H. Auden (1949)
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