Showing posts with label monuments. Show all posts
Showing posts with label monuments. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 19, 2025

Paul Caponigro

Paul Caponigro
Scotch Thistle and Heather, Rochester N.Y.
1958
gelatin silver print
Princeton University Art Museum


Paul Caponigro
Fishbone (Maine)
1962
gelatin silver print
Princeton University Art Museum

Paul Caponigro
Dutch Pipe Leaves
1963
gelatin silver print
Art Institute of Chicago

Paul Caponigro
Cabbage Leaf, Winthrop, Massachusetts
1964
gelatin silver print
Art Institute of Chicago

Paul Caponigro
Running White Deer, County Wicklow, Ireland
1967
gelatin silver print
Minneapolis Institute of Art

Paul Caponigro
Donegal
1967
gelatin silver print
Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio

Paul Caponigro
Stonehenge
1967
gelatin silver print
Art Institute of Chicago

Paul Caponigro
Stonehenge
1967
gelatin silver print
Art Institute of Chicago

Paul Caponigro
Stonehenge
1967
gelatin silver print
Art Institute of Chicago

Paul Caponigro
Stonehenge
1967
gelatin silver print
Art Institute of Chicago

Paul Caponigro
Stonehenge
1967
gelatin silver print
Art Institute of Chicago

Paul Caponigro
Stonehenge
1967
gelatin silver print
Art Institute of Chicago

Paul Caponigro
Redding Woods, Connecticut
1968
gelatin silver print
Art Institute of Chicago

Paul Caponigro
Redding Woods, Connecticut
1969
gelatin silver print
Art Institute of Chicago
 
Paul Caponigro
Callanish Stone Circle, Hebrides
1972
gelatin silver print
Minneapolis Institute of Art

Paul Caponigro
Bridal Veil Falls, Yosemite
1974
gelatin silver print
Minneapolis Institute of Art

from Metamorphoses

Narcissus on the grassy Verdure lies:
But whilst within the Crystal Fount he tries
To quench his Heat, he feels new Heat arise.
For as his own bright Image he survey'd,
He fell in love with the fantastick Shade;
And o'er the fair Resemblance hung unmov'd,
Nor knew, fond Youth! it was himself he lov'd.
The well turn'd Neck and Shoulders he descries,
The spacious Forehead, and the sparkling Eyes;
The hands that Bacchus might not scorn to show,
And hair that round Apollo's Head might flow;
With all the Purple Youthfulness of Face,
That gently blushes in the wat'ry Glass.
By his own Flames consum'd the Lover lies,
And gives himself the Wound by which he dies.
To the cold Water oft he joins his Lips,
Oft catching at the beauteous Shade he dips
His Arms, as often from himself he slips.
Nor knows he who it is his Arms pursue
With eager Clasps, but loves he knows not who.

– Ovid (43 BC-AD 17), translated by Joseph Addison (1794)

Monday, August 4, 2025

Singular Objects - II

Xaver Fuhr
Still Life (Rubber Plant)
ca. 1925
oil on canvas
Kunsthalle Mannheim

Ton Kraayeveld
Ostsicht
2013
oil on canvas
Dordrechts Museum

Linda Lothe
Untitled
1999
porcelain with applied photo-print
KORO (Public Art Norway), Oslo

Anne Poirier and Patrick Poirier
Antiquités du Louvre
1980
gum bichromate print
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Roman Empire
Winged Phallus
1st century AD
bronze
Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel

Roman Empire
Cinerary Urn
AD 20-40
marble
Antikensammlung, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Severo da Ravenna
Candlestick on Clawfoot
ca. 1520
bronze
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia

Vladimir Tatlin
Model for Monument to the Third International
original built 1919-20, replica executed 1976
wood, metal, plastic
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Eilif Amundsen
Chair
1992
oil on canvas
Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo

Anonymous French Artist
Ovula Gisortiani
ca. 1860
albumen print
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Pau

Amalia Årfelt
Potato Eyes
2008
etching
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Hans Bellmer
Les Jeux de la Poupée
ca. 1938
hand-colored gelatin silver print
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Harry Callahan
Weed against Sky
1948
gelatin silver print
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Christo
Study for Otterlo Mastaba
1974
drawing (colored pencils)
Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands

Jean-Jules Dufour
Russian Bird
1915
drawing
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Reims

Lee Friedlander
Nashville
1963
gelatin silver print
Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo

Going through the woods, about six hundred yards from the shore we saw a bronze pillar with a faded, worn inscription in Greek that said "Hercules and Dionysus reached this point."  Nearby, on a rock, were two footprints, one a hundred feet long, the other smaller.  The smaller I supposed to belong to Dionysus, the other to Hercules.*  We made our obeisances and went on.  Before we had gone very far, we found ourselves beside a river running wine very like Chian; it was of some size and depth, even being navigable in some places.  We were led to put much more confidence in the inscription on the pillar when we saw this evidence of Dionysus's visit.  I decided to find the source of the river.  Going upstream I found, not indeed any spring from which it issued, but a great many large vines loaded with grapes.  By the root of each of these flowed a trickle of wine, and it was from these that the river was formed.  We could actually see a lot of fish in it.  Their flesh was vinous both in color and taste; anyway, we caught some and got drunk eating them.  Of course they were full of wine lees when we cut them open.  Later on, though, we hit on the idea of mixing them with water-fish and thus diluting this strong wine-food.  

*Herodotus speaks of a footprint three feet long left by Hercules in Scythia. 

– Lucian, from A True Story (2nd century AD), translated from Greek by B.P. Reardon (1989)

Tuesday, May 27, 2025

Approaches to Ornament - IV

Antoine Vollon
Wedding Gifts
ca. 1860
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Reims

Anonymous Italian Artist
Teatro di San Carlo, Naples
ca. 1860
watercolor on paper
Morgan Library, New York

Braun, Clément & Cie
Tombeau du Maréchal de Laxe
ca. 1880
photogravure
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

August Robert Roesler
Untitled
ca. 1880
hand-colored albumen print
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Karl Wendling
Bacchic Scene
1880
oil on canvas
Alte Nationalgalerie,
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Louis Béroud
Central Dome at the Exposition Universelle, Paris
1890
oil on canvas
Musée Carnavalet, Paris

Chris van der Windt
Design for Ornamental Frieze with Irises
ca. 1890-1900
watercolor on paper
Museum De Lakenhal, Leiden

Aubrey Beardsley
Keynote Series (books)
ca. 1896
lithograph (poster)
Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Claude Bragdon
The Chap Book (Chicago)
1896
lithograph (poster)
Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Adolphe Willette
Cabaret du Ciel
1896
lithograph (poster)
Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Anonymous German Artist
Art-Nouveau Tile with Fox-Head Motif
ca. 1900
glazed earthenware
Museum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte, Dortmund

Mikhail Vrubel
The Swan Princess
1900
oil on canvas
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Bruno Paul
Ausstellung Kunst im Handwerk, München
1901
lithograph (poster)
Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Koloman Moser
Exhibition of the Vienna Secession
1902
lithograph (poster)
Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Édouard Vuillard
Interior
1904
oil on cardboard
Pushkin Museum, Moscow

James Bourn
Untitled
1905
pigment print
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

How Callirhoe, the most beautiful of women, married Chaereas, the handsomest of men, by Aphrodite's management; how in a fit of lover's jealousy Chaereas struck her, and to all appearances she died; how she had a costly funeral and then, just as she came out of her coma in the funeral vault, tomb robbers carried her away from Sicily by night, sailed to Ionia, and sold her to Dionysius; Dionysius's love for her, her fidelity to Chaereas, the need to marry caused by her pregnancy; Theron's confession, Chaereas's journey across the sea in search of his wife; how he was captured, sold, and taken to Caria with his friend Polycharmus; how Mithridates discovered his identity as he was on the point of death and tried to restore the lovers to each other; how Dionysius found this out through a letter and complained to Pharnaces, who reported it to the King, and the King summoned both of them to judgment – this has all been set out in the story so far.  Now I shall describe what happened next.

– from Chaereas and Callirhoe by Chariton (AD 50), translated from Greek by B.P. Reardon (1989)

Monday, May 12, 2025

Claes Oldenburg

Claes Oldenburg
Store Window - Yellow Shirt, Red Bow-Tie
1961
watercolor and crayon on paper
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York


Claes Oldenburg
Ice box
1963
watercolor and crayon on paper
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Claes Oldenburg
Study for a Soft Sculpture
in the form of a Giant Lipstick

1967
watercolor and crayon on paper
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Claes Oldenburg
Proposed Colossal Monument
for End of Navy Pier, Chicago - Bed Table Lamp

1967
watercolor and crayon on paper
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Claes Oldenburg
Giant Fireplug sited in Civic Center, Chicago
1968
watercolor and crayon on paper
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Claes Oldenburg
Fire-Plug Souvenir
(August - Chicago - 1968)

1968
painted plaster
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Claes Oldenburg
Typewriter Erasers - Position Studies
1970
watercolor and colored pencil on paper
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Claes Oldenburg
Self Portrait
1971
lithograph
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

Claes Oldenburg
Hats - Vesuvius
1973
lithograph
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Claes Oldenburg
Typewriter Eraser as Tornado
1973
offset-lithograph (exhibition poster)
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Claes Oldenburg
Colossal Eraser on Alcatraz Island
1976
lithograph
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

Claes Oldenburg
Floating Three-Way Plug
1976
etching and aquatint
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

Claes Oldenburg
Screw Arch Bridge
1981
aquatint, monotype and etching
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Claes Oldenburg
Proposal for a Civic Monument
in the Form of Two Windows

1982
lithograph
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Anonymous photographer for Leo Castelli Gallery
Claes Oldenburg and Leo Castelli
ca. 1985
gelatin silver print
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC

Claes Oldenburg
Soft Pencil Sharpener
1989
lithograph
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

An Abdication

First I looked at water. It was good.
Blue oblongs glinted from afar. From close
I saw it moving, hueless, clear
Down to a point past which nothing was clear
Or moving, and I had to close
My eyes. The water had done little good.

A second day I tried the trees. They stood
In a rich stupor, altogether
Rooted in the poor, the hard, the real.
But then my mind began to reel –
Elsewhere, smoother limbs would grow together.
How should the proffered apple be withstood?

One dusk upon my viewless throne
I realized the housecat's tyrant nature,
Let her features small and grave
Look past me as into their shallow grave.
No animal could keep me from a nature
Which existed to be overthrown.

Man at last, the little that I own
Is not long for this world. My cousin's eye
Lights on a rust-red, featherweight
Crown of thoughts. He seems to wait
For me to lift it from my brow (as I
Now do) and place it smartly on his own.  

– James Merrill (1969)