To Awaken, Perchance To Dream

Henri Julien Félix Rousseau (1844-1910) - The Dream, 1910


'The eye which dreams does not see, or at least it sees with another vision.'

Gaston Bachelard

The Girl With Looking-Glass Eyes

Édouard Manet (1832-1883) - A Bar at the Folies-Bergère, 1882


'Detail contradicts sentiment.'

Robert Hughes

Brought To You By The Number 5 (May Special)

Charles Demuth (1883-1935) - I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold, 1928

Among the rain
and lights
I saw the figure 5
in gold
on a red
fire truck
moving
tense
unheeded
to gong clangs
siren howls
and wheels rumbling
through the dark city.

William Carlos Williams

Savouring The Arrows Of Outrageous Misfortune

Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) - The Little Deer, 1946


'Autobiography begins with a sense of being alone. It is an orphan form.'

John Berger

Criminal Injustice

Francisco de Goya (1746-1828) - The Third of May, 1808


'War does not determine who is right - only who is left.'

Bertrand Russell

Icarus On A Leash

Louis Michel Eilshemius (1864-1941) - Afternoon Wind, 1899


'Happiness is not an ideal of reason, but of imagination.'

Immanuel Kant

Time In A Bottle

Giorgio Morandi (1890-1964) - Bottles, 1916

'Humility is attentive patience.'

Simone Weil

See Paris And Sigh

Brassaï (1899-1984) - Foggy Paris, 1934


'A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.'

Oscar Wilde

The Ripples Of Being Have No Alpha Or Omega

Jasper Johns (b. 1930) - Target, 1958


'Nature is an infinite sphere whose centre is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere.'

Blaise Pascal

The Lazarus Machine

Anselm Kiefer (b. 1945) - Falling Stars, 1995


'I'm interested in reconstituting symbols. It's about connecting with an older knowledge and trying to discover continuities in why we search for heaven.'

Anselm Kiefer

He Sang The Body Electric

Jaques-Louis David (1748-1825) - Patroclus, 1780


'Man is an intelligence in servitude to his organs.'

Aldous Huxley

Life After Gravity

Edgar Degas (1834-1917) - Mlle La La at the Circus Fernando, 1879


'The greatest danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short, but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.'

Michelangelo

The Mother Of All Virgins

Damien Hirst (b. 1965) - Virgin Mother (10.7 metres), 2006


'What I really like is minimum effort for maximum effect.'

Damien Hirst

Déjà Lu

Gregory Crewdson (b. 1962) - Untitled (from the series 'Twilight'), 2001


'Literature is the question minus the answer.'

Roland Barthes

The Doyens Of Damnation

Hieronymous Bosch (c. 1450-1516) - The Temptation of St. Anthony (central panel), 1500


'Saintliness is also a temptation.'

Jean Anouilh

Sex Is Not The Enemy

Tom Wesselmann (1931-2004) - Great American Nude, #92, 1967


'I don't know the question, but sex is definitely the answer.'

Woody Allen

The Heart Is A Lonely Punter

Caspar David Friedrich (1770-1840) - Man and Woman Contemplate the Moon, c. 1824


'We're born alone, we live alone, we die alone. Only through our love and friendship can we create the illusion for the moment that we're not alone.'

Orson Welles

Twinkle, Twinkle

Tony Oursler (b. 1957) - Star, 2005


'I wish that I was where I am.'

Gertrude Stein

Darkness Visible

Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) - Olive Trees in the Sun, 1889


'I became insane. With long intervals of horrible sanity.'

Edgar Allan Poe

The Genius Of Infirmity

Max Klinger (1857-1920) - Plague, 1898


'I enjoy convalescence. It is the part that makes the illness worthwhile.'

George Bernard Shaw