Showing posts with label lead. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lead. Show all posts

Saturday, August 29, 2026

Visual Preferences (20th Century: 1969)

Howard Hack
Cufflink
(Object series)
1969
lithograph
San Jose Museum of Art, California

Jean Dubuffet
The Gossiper II
1969
painted epoxy resin
Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas

Llyn Foulkes
Leonard's Rock
1969
oil and acrylic on canvas
Orange County Museum of Art, Costa Mesa, California

Jasper Johns
Bread
1969
embossed and painted lead
Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas

Philip Guston
Untitled
1969
acrylic on panel
Nasher Museum of Art, Durham, North Carolina

Helen Frankenthaler
Wisdom
1969
acrylic on canvas
Akron Art Museum, Ohio

Duane Michals
The Human Condition 1
1969
gelatin silver print
Art Institute of Chicago

Duane Michals
The Human Condition 2
1969
gelatin silver print
Art Institute of Chicago

Duane Michals
The Human Condition 3
1969
gelatin silver print
Art Institute of Chicago

Duane Michals
The Human Condition 4
1969
gelatin silver print
Art Institute of Chicago

Duane Michals
The Human Condition 5
1969
gelatin silver print
Art Institute of Chicago

Duane Michals
The Human Condition 6
1969
gelatin silver print
Art Institute of Chicago

Frank Stella
Hiraqla Variation III
1969
acrylic on canvas
Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, California

Thomas Algernon Weir
Ferns
1969
gelatin silver print
Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, California

Garry Winogrand
Centennial Ball, Metropolitan Museum of Art
1969
gelatin silver print
Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York

Garry Winogrand
Centennial Ball, Metropolitan Museum of Art
1969
gelatin silver print
Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York

Numbers and Faces

The Kingdom of Numbers is all boundaries
Which may be beautiful and must be true;
To ask if it is big or small proclaims one
The sort of lover who should stick to faces.

Lovers of small numbers go benignly potty,
Believe all tales are thirteen chapters long,
Have animal doubles, carry pentagrams,
Are Millerites, Baconians, Flat-Earth-Men.

Lovers of big numbers go horridly mad,
Would have the Swiss abolished, all of us
Well purged, somatotyped, baptised, taught baseball:
They empty bars, spoil parties, run for Congress. 

True, between faces almost any number
Might come in handy, and One is always real;
But which could any face call good, for calling
Infinity a number does not make it one.

– W.H. Auden (1950)

Saturday, August 1, 2026

Pyre

Anonymous Spanish Makers
Reliquary Bust of St Ferdinand
ca. 1500 (head) and ca. 1850-1900 (bust)
partly-gilt silver and gems
Musée du Louvre


Yasuhiro Ishimoto
Untitled
ca. 1949-50
gelatin silver print
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Domenico Ghirlandaio
Risen Chris appearing to the Virgin
ca. 1490
tempera and gold on panel
Musée du Louvre

Jasper Johns
Pyre
2003
encaustic on canvas, with wood
Museum of Modern Art, New York

Anonymous English Makers
Etui Nécessaire
ca. 1760-70
case with agate panels set in gold
and containing gold implements
Musée du Louvre

Yasuhiro Ishimoto
Child with Mask, Chicago
1960
gelatin silver print
Museum of Modern Art, New York

Domenico Ghirlandaio
St Christopher
ca. 1472-75
detached fresco
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Jasper Johns
Pyre 2
2003
oil on canvas, with wood
Museum of Modern Art, New York

Anonymous German Makers
Lidded Mug with Snail and Seashells
17th century
ivory
Musée du Louvre

Yasuhiro Ishimoto
Untitled
ca. 1949-50
gelatin silver print
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Domenico Ghirlandaio
St James the Greater flanked by St Stephen and St Peter
1493
tempera and oil on panel
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

Jasper Johns
Land's End
1963
oi -on canvas
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Anonymous French Maker
Biberon (infant feeding bottle)
16th century
blown glass
Musée du Louvre

Yasuhiro Ishimoto
Untitled
ca. 1949-50
gelatin silver print
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Domenico Ghirlandaio
Three Heroes of Antiquity - Julius Caesar, Mucius Scaevola and Marcus Furius Camillus
ca. 1482-84
fresco
Sala dei Gigli, Palazzo Vecchio, Florence

Jasper Johns
Zero through Nine
1970
lead relief
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Anonymous Japanese Maker
Vase in form of a Carp
before 1880
porcelain
Musée du Louvre

from In Time of War

Always far from the centre of our names,
The little workshop of love: yes, but how wrong
We were about the old manors and the long
Abandoned Folly and the children's games.

Only the acquisitive expects a quaint
Unsaleable product, something to please
An artistic girl; it's the selfish who sees
In every impractical beggar a saint.

We can't believe that we ourselves designed it,
A minor item of our daring plan
That caused no trouble; we took no notice of it.

Disaster comes, and we're amazed to find it
The single product that since work began
Through all the cycle showed a steady profit.

– W.H. Auden (1938)

Thursday, June 11, 2026

Solos

Marshall Glasier
Life of the Cabbage
1944
oil on panel
Milwaukee Art Museum, Wisconsin


Matt Hoyt
Star Form
2014-16
putty and resin
Buffalo AKG Art Museum, New York

Joseph Cornell
Untitled (Bébé Marie)
ca. 1941-43
wood box with doll and twigs
Museum of Modern Art, New York

Wally Hedrick
Orb of Power
1962
oil on canvas
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Anonymous Italian Makers
Bust of Julius Caesar
ca. 1750-1800
silver, chalcedony and amethyst
(1 of 12 Emperors with heads in different stones)
Musée du Louvre

Edward Hopper
Intermission
1963
oil on canvas
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Walter Hege
Detail of Horsebreaker Frieze from the Parthenon
ca. 1928-29
gelatin silver print
Art Institute of Chicago

Elizabeth King Hawley
Hanging Sphere
ca. 1875
chalk on paper
Museum of Modern Art, New York

Marsden Hartley
Robin
ca. 1940-41
oil on board
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh

Hector Guimard
Pendant
ca. 1907-1912
gold and diamonds
Museum of Modern Art, New York

Juan Gris
Le Violon accroché
1913
drawing
Guggenheim Museum, New York

Ancient Greek Culture
Victory of Samothrace
200-175 BC
marble
Musée du Louvre

Frank Gehry for Knoll (USA)
Cross-Check Armchair
1991
maple
Museum of Modern Art, New York

Filippo Napoletano (Filippo Angeli)
Skeleton of Heron
1620
etching
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Anonymous French Maker
Powder Flask with Hercules and the Nemean Lion
ca. 1550-1600
relief-cut stag-horn
Musée du Louvre

Tibor Kalman
Paperweight
1984
vinyl and lead
Museum of Modern Art, New York

Vincent Fecteau
Untitled
2007-2008
painted papier-mâché
Museum of Modern Art, New York

Upon this line between adventure
Prolong the meeting out of good nature
Obvious in each agreeable feature.

Calling of each other by name
Smiling, taking a willing arm
Has the companionship of a game.

But should the walk do more than this
Out of bravado or drunkenness
Forward and backward are menaces.

– W.H. Auden (1929)