Inferno (detail), Chalk on blackboard, Tacita Dean, 244 x 1220 cm, 2019.

23 Blue Breaths, Detail view, D Harding, 2020.

Fragment, Nephrite, 1902.

Miniature gold figure of a llama, Peru, Inca, ca 1500.

Nu au fauteuil, Oil on board, 49.5 x 55.9, Edouard Vuillard, 1900.

Pitchet, Scavo glass, Ermanno Nason for Vetreria Cenedese, 1967.

Terracotta kantharos (drinking cup), Etruscan culture, late 4th century B.C.

Obverse and reverse, ketos (sea monster). Because the trip to the Underworld was believed to involve a sea voyage, marine creatures, both real and imaginary, were often associated with death in Etruscan culture. Both hippocamps (sea horses) and kete (sea monsters) were presented in a positive light, often guarding the deceased or transporting them to […]

Eaton’s Neck, Long Island, Oil on canvas, John Frederick Kensett, 1872.

The Sea at Dieppe, Watercolor on laid paper, Eugène Delacroix, ca. 1852–54.

Beside the Sea, Marble, August Rodin, ca 1907.

1907

Scrunched paper sculpture, Ceramics, Tibor Kalman, 1984.

Ceramic sculpture, 24cm x 23cm, Peter Hayes, 1998.

Christo wraps Little Bay, New South Wales, Photography by David Moore, 1969.

And who would be my mother (of Invention), 2013/2022. Hand-painted bronze on painted MDF plinth, Rebecca Warren, 2022.

Love me tender 216, Collage by Katrien de Blauwer, 2018.

Floy, Photography, Jeremy Everett, 2015.

Two Forms, Marble sculpture, Barbara Hepworth, 1937.

Repose, Oil on canvas, John White Alexander, 1895.

Haniwa (hollow clay sculpture) of a boar, Japan, Earthenware, Kofun period (ca. 300–710).

Earthen tomb mounds, common burial practice on the Asian continent, were brought to Japan around the third century. Haniwa (clay cylinders)—at times numbering in the thousands—were placed in rows or scattered outside these tombs. Sculptors sometimes topped cylinders with figures or animals, themselves often almost abstract in aesthetic. The shape of this poignant example recalls […]

Aquamanile in the Form of Aristotle and Phyllis, Bronze, Quaternary copper alloy, South Netherlandish, 14th – 15h century.

An aquamanile is a vessel for pouring water used in the ritual of washing hands in both religious and secular contexts—by the priest before Mass and in a private household before a meal. The subject of this celebrated example is the moralizing legend of Aristotle and Phyllis, which achieved popularity in the late Middle Ages. […]

Pelvis with the Distance, Georgia O’Keeffe, 1943.

Wall with Green Door, Oil on canvas, Georgia O’Keeffe, 76.2 × 122.6 cm, 1953.

Liquid Crystal Environment, Gustav Metzger, 1963.

Stranger’s Eye, Ragna Bley, 2022.