Visual Preferences (20th Century: 1952)

Ruth Orkin
Hollywood Party, with Lana Turner and Fernando Lamas
1952
gelatin silver print
Art Institute of Chicago

Jackson Pollock
No. 2-A
1952
oil on canvas, mounted on panel
McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas

James Brooks
K-1952
1952
oil on canvas
Dallas Museum of Art

Elaine De Kooning
Double Portrait of Selima Stavola
1952
oil on canvas
NSU Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Robert Frank
Paris
1952
gelatin silver print
Art Institute of Chicago

Philip Kouwen
Studio Wall
1952
oil on paper
Dordrechts Museum, Netherlands

Agnes Martin
Winter Yellow
1952
watercolor on paper
Seattle Art Museum

Rollie McKenna
Caitlin and Dylan Thomas, Millbrook, New York
1952
gelatin silver print
Loeb Art Center, Vassar College,
Poughkeepsie, New York

Rollie McKenna
Carnegie Hall, New York City
1952
gelatin silver print
Loeb Art Center, Vassar College,
Poughkeepsie, New York

Henry Moore
Study for Time-Life Frieze
1952
bronze
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

Robert Motherwell
Île de France
1952
watercolor and ink on paper
North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh

Ben Nicholson
Jan 3 52 (Cromlech)
1952
oil on canvas
McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas

Grace Robertson
The Connoisseur, Tate Gallery
1952
gelatin silver print
Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York

Charley Toorop
Fruit and Autumn Leaves
1952
oil on panel
Kunstmuseum, The Hague

Co Westerik
Bus at Night
1952
oil on canvas
Kunstmuseum, The Hague

Co Westerik
Woman in Labor
1952
oil and tempera on canvas, mounted on panel
Kunstmuseum, The Hague

from Dichtung und Wahrheit (An Unwritten Poem)

                                                          

                                                           XXVII

The I-feeling: a feeling of being-responsible-for. (It cannot accompany a verb in the passive.) I wake in the morning with a violent headache and cry Ouch!  This cry is involuntary and devoid of I-feeling. Then I think – "I have a hangover"; some I-feeling accompanies this thought – the act of locating and identifying the headache is mine – but very little. Then I think – "I drank too much last night." Now the I-feeling is much stronger. I could have drunk less. A headache has become my hangover, an incident in my personal history. (I cannot identify my hangover by pointing to my head and groaning, for what makes it mine is my past act and I cannot point to myself yesterday.)

                                                           XXVIII

The You-feeling: a feeling of attributing-responsibility-to. If, when I think You are beautiful, this thought is accompanied by the You-feeling, I mean that I hold you responsible, in part at least, for your physical appearance; it is not merely due to a lucky combination of genes.

                                                            XXIX

Common to both the I- and the You-feeling: a feeling of being-in-the-middle-of-a-story. I cannot think I love You without including the thoughts I have already loved You (if only for a moment) and I shall still love You (if only for a moment). If therefore, I attempt, as I should like to do in this poem, to express what I mean by this thought, I turn myself into a historian, faced with a historian's problems. Of the documents at my disposal (memories of myself, or You, of what I have heard on the subject of love), some have probably been doctored, some may even be downright forgeries; where I have no documents, I cannot tell if this is because they never existed or because they have been lost or hidden and, if so, what difference it would make to my historical picture if they could be recovered. Even were I gifted with total recall, I should still be faced with the task of interpreting them and assessing their relative importance. 

– W.H. Auden (1959)

Visual Preferences (20th Century: 1951)

Mark Rothko
No. 7
1951
oil on canvas
private collection

Manolis Polymeris
Figure in Red
1951
oil on panel
National Gallery, Athens

John Piper
Study for Shobdon Folly
1951
watercolor, gouache and collage on paper
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York

Aldo Pagliacci
Interior of a Church in Flames
1951
oil on panel
Southampton City Art Gallery, Hampshire

Roy Lichtenstein
Roping the Brahman
1951
oil on canvas
Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami

Fernand Léger
Les Constructeurs
1951
oil on canvas
Menil Collection, Houston

Yousuf Karsh
Advertising Shot for Ford of Canada
1951
gelatin silver print
Art Institute of Chicago

Raoul Dufy
Tucson Square Dance
1951
watercolor on paper
Milwaukee Art Museum

Robert Doisneau
Les Géants du Nord
1951
gelatin silver print
Akron Art Museum, Ohio

John Craxton
The Dancer
1951
oil on canvas
Jerwood Collection, London

Forrest Bess
View of Maya
1951
oil on canvas
Menil Collection, Houston

Francis Bacon
Pope I
1951
oil on canvas
Aberdeen Art Gallery, Scotland

Clare Atwood
Self Portrait in a Hat with a Basket of Vegetables
1951
oil on canvas
National Trust, Fenton House, London

Hans Arp
Dreams and Projects
1951
woodcut
Loeb Art Center, Vassar College,
Poughkeepsie, New York

Karel Appel
Child IV
1951
oil on canvas
Kunstmuseum, The Hague

Harold Allen
Still Life in Stanley Mitruk's Studio
1951
gelatin silver print
Art Institute of Chicago

from Dichtung und Wahrheit (An Unwritten Poem)

                                                          XXIV

When his affair with Criseyde was going nicely, Troilus became an even fiercer warrior than before – "Save Ector most ydred of any wight" – but a gentler sportsman – "The smale bestes leet he gon biside." And we certainly sometimes say of an acquaintance who claims to have fallen in love: – "It must be true this time. He used to be so malicious about everybody but now, since he met N, he never utters an unkind word." But it is impossible to imagine a lover himself saying: – "It must be true that I love N because I am so much nicer now than I was before we met." (It is, perhaps, just possible to imagine him saying: – "I believe that N must really love me because she has made me so much nicer.")

                                                           XXV

In any case, this poem I should like to write is not concerned with the proposition "He loves Her" (where He and She could be fictitious persons whose characters and history the poet is free to idealize as much as he choose), but with my proposition I love You (where I and You are persons whose existence and histories could be verified by a private detective).

                                                           XXVI

It is a grammatical convention of the English language that a speaker should refer to himself as "I" and to the person he is addressing as "You", but there are many situations in which a different convention would serve equally well. It might be the rule, for example, when making polite conversation with strangers or when addressing public officials, to use the third person: – "Mr Smith likes cats, doesn't Miss Jones?"; "Can the honourable conductor tell the humble passenger when this train leaves?"  There are many situations, that is to say, in which the use of the pronoun "I" and "You" is not accompanied by the I-feeling or the You-feeling.

– W.H. Auden (1959)

Visual Preferences (20th Century: 1950)

Max Beckmann
The Pompeii Clowns
1950
oil on canvas
Seattle Art Museum

Sonia Delaunay
Composition
1950
screenprint
Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami

Robert Doisneau
Madame Colette
1950
gelatin silver print
Portland Museum of Art, Maine

Max Ernst
Inspired Hill
1950
oil on canvas
Menil Collection, Houston

Robert Frank
London
1950
gelatin silver print
Institut Valencià d'Art Modern

Petr Golub
Great Stalin - Best Friend of the Latvian People!
1950
lithograph (poster)
Nasher Museum of Art, Durham, North Carolina

Fernand Léger
Deauville, August
1950
lithograph
Art Institute of Chicago

Felix H. Man
Fernand Léger, Montparnasse
1950
gelatin silver print
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Rollie McKenna
Central Park, New York
1950
gelatin silver print
Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York

Hans Namuth
Jackson Pollock in the Studio of James Brooks
1950
gelatin silver print
Dallas Museum of Art

Irving Penn
Coal Man, London
1950
gelatin silver print
Art Institute of Chicago

Irving Penn
Kerchief Glove (Dior), Paris
1950
gelatin silver print
Art Institute of Chicago

Pablo Picasso
Vase
1950
glazed terracotta
Kunstmuseum, The Hague

Kurt Seligmann
Clio
1950
oil on canvas
Art Institute of Chicago

Charles Sheeler
Family Group
1950
oil on canvas
Orlando Museum of Art, Florida

Charles Sheeler
Skyline
1950
oil on canvas
Wichita Art Museum, Kansas

from Dichtung und Wahrheit (An Unwritten Poem)

                                                              XXI

The poets tell us of heroic deeds done for love: – the lover goes to the ends of the earth to fetch the Water of Life, he slays ogres and dragons, he scales a glass mountain, etc., and his final reward is the hand and heart of the girl he loves (who is usually a Princess). But all this is in the social realm, not the personal. It is quite in order that the girl's parents (or public opinion) should say: – "Such-and-such a quality is essential in a son-in-law (or a King)," and insist that every suitor submit to whatever test, be it scaling a glass mountain or translating a passage of Thucydides unseen, will show whether he possesses it or not: and any suitor who passes the test successfully has the right to demand their consent to the match. But no test is conceivable which would make the girl herself say: "I could not love any suitor who fails it, but I shall love the suitor, whoever he may be, who passes it"; nor is any deed conceivable which would give a suitor the right to demand her love.

     Suppose, too, that she doubts the quality of his affection (is he only after her body or her money?), then no deed of his, however heroic, can reassure her: in relation to her personally, all it can prove is that his motive, noble or base, is strong enough to make him submit to the Test. 

                                                              XXII 

To give another a present is a deed of generosity, and the epic poet spends almost as much time describing the gifts his heroes exchange and the feasts they give as he spends describing their deeds in battle, for the epic hero is expected to be as generous as he is brave. The degree of generosity is verified by the market value of the gift: the poet has only to tell us the size of the rubies and emeralds set in the scabbard, or the number of sheep and oxen consumed at the feast. But how is a poet to speak convincingly of gifts made for love ("I will give you the Keys of Heaven," etc.)? The market value of a personal gift is irrelevant. The lover tries to choose what, from his knowledge of his beloved's tastes, he believes she would like most to receive at the moment (and receive from him): this might be a Cadillac, but it might equally well be a comic postcard. If he is a would-be seducer, hoping to buy, or she a would-be prostitute, hoping to sell, then, of course, the market value is very relevant. (Not invariably: his intended victim might be a very rich girl whose sole interest in life was collecting comic postcards.)

                                                              XXIII 

The anonymous gift is a deed of charity, but we are speaking of eros, not of agape. It is as much of the essence of erotic love that it should desire to disclose itself to one other, as it is of the essence of charity that it should desire to conceal itself from all. Under certain circumstances, a lover may try to conceal his love (he is a hunchback, the girl is his own sister, etc.) but it is not as a lover that he tries to conceal it; and if he were then to send her gifts anonymously, would not this betray a hope, conscious or unconscious, of arousing her curiosity to the point where she would take steps to discover his identity?

– W.H. Auden (1959)

Ego Vivo

Jacques-Laurent Agasse
Self Portrait at age 18
1785
pastel on vellum
Cabinet d'Arts Graphiques
des Musées d'Art et d'Histoire, Genève

Max Beckmann
Self Portrait at age 15
1899
oil on canvas
Sprengel Museum, Hannover

Caspar Berger
Ego Vivo / Self Portrait 25
2013
mixed-media sculpture installation
Museum de Fundatie, Zwolle, Netherlands

Ami Bergman
Self Portrait
2021
acrylic on canvas
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Wilhelm Dodel
Self Portrait with Dog Rose
ca. 1930
oil on canvas
Galerie Neue Meister, Dresden

Uno Falkengren
Self Portrait
ca. 1909
gelatin silver print
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Angelica Kauffmann
Self Portrait
1784
oil on canvas
Neue Pinakothek, Munich

Käthe Kollwitz
Self Portrait
ca. 1890
drawing
Kupferstichkabinett,
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden

Paula Modersohn-Becker
Self Portrait with Irises
ca. 1905
oil on canvas
Kunsthalle Bremen

Maximilian Reinitz
Self Portrait
ca. 1930
woodcut
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Samuel van Hoogstraten
Self Portrait at age 18
1645
oil on panel
Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna

Egon Schiele
Self Portrait
1910
watercolor and gouache on paper
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Helene Schjerfbeck
Self Portrait with Palette
1937
oil on canvas
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Charley Toorop
Self Portrait with Palette
1934
oil on canvas
Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands

Harriet Sundström
Self Portrait
1913
color woodblock print
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Albert Schindler
Self Portrait in the Studio
ca. 1840
oil on panel
Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna

That same summer, the Thebans demolished the walls of the Thespians, laying Atticism to their charge.  And though they had ever meant to do it, yet now it was easier, because the flower of their youth was slain in the battle against the Athenians.  The temple of Juno in Argos was also burnt down the same summer, by the negligence of Chrysis, the priest, who, having set a burning torch by the garlands, fell asleep, insomuch as all was on fire and flamed out before she knew.  Chrysis, the same night, for fear of the Argives, fled presently to Phlius; and they, according to the law formerly used, chose another priest in her room, called Phaeinis.  Now, when Chrysis fled, was the eighth year of this war ended, and half of the ninth.  Scione, in the very end of this summer, was quite enclosed; and the Athenians, having left a guard there, went home with the rest of their army.   

– from The Peloponnesian War as written by Thucydides (5th century BC) and translated by Thomas Hobbes (1628) and edited by David Grene (1959)