Title: "Untitled #4"

Artist: Richard Berman

mixed media

2009

30 tall x 20 inches wide

Framed

Donated (anonymously) to the collection of The Museum of Nothing in Particular.

“What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or in the holy name of liberty or democracy?”  

Mahatma Ghandi

“To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything, is to succumb to the violence of our times.”

Thomas Merton

Title: "You Called Me Whore #3

(study)

Artist: Sandra Filippucci

3D render, oil wash, graphite on rag paper

2015

22 x 17 inches 

Gold leaf frame

"Consider this unique and imposing distinction.
Since the writing of human history began,
Joan of Arc is the only person, of either sex,
who has ever held supreme command
of the military forces of a nation
at the age of seventeen." 

                        Louis Kossuth-19th Century European Freedom Fighter 

...and by extension, the creator of this particular image of the Maid of Orleans is the only Artist in our knowledge who has devoted decades to the study and worship (figuratively speaking) of this heroine, this icon, this brave teen.  

We are honored to add this work to the permanent collection of the Museum of Nothing in Particular! 

"I' the commonwealth I would by contraries
Execute all things; for no kind of traffic
Would I admit; no name of magistrate;
Letters should not be known; riches, poverty,
And use of service, none; contract, succesion,
Bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none;
No use of metal, corn, or wine, or oil;
No occupation; all men are idle, all;
And women too, but innocent and pure."

-William Shakespeare, The Tempest.

4-1/2 x 4 inches. Plastic, cardboard, metal clip.

This badge, issued at the first of five checkpoints into The Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq, gave temporary admittance to the offices of the Iraqi Interim Commission.  

Although, with the return of the Visitor’s passport at the termination of the meeting the plastic badge was to have been relinquished, it was not. 

34 tall x 36 inches diameter. Ivory, rosewood, metal, and silk.

Currently on loan to the collection of The Museum of Nothing in Particular.

“they (the Americans) equally detest the pageantry of a king, and the supercilious hypocrisy of a bishop.”   

                                        -from the letters from Junius (pseudonym) to the publisher of the London Public Advertiser in 1772. This letter is of great significance in the history of Freedom of the Press as the publisher was prosecuted for seditious libel for having printed it.

Memoirs of Bishop Lamy's contemporaries have wittily commented about Bishop Lamy's use of his umbrella. Sisters of Charity Mary Joaquin Bitler and Catherine Mallon recalled in 1865 that "Lamy gave up half of his mud-floored house to the sisters - the part in which the roof didn’t leak. When it rained, the good bishop ate his dinner with an umbrella over his head".

It bears the label "Grands Magasins du Louvre", Paris, and this origin was confirmed thanks to the expertise of Pierre François, a specialist in "parapluies" who has his boutique in the French Pyrénées.

7-1/4 x 4-1/2 inches. Print on paper. An Illustration from Gent Magazine, May 1767

From an extensive collection of prints, maps and books on Patagonia at The Wonder Institute.

"An Oxford pudding:

A quarter of a pound of bifcuit grated: a quarter of a pound of currants, clean wafhed and picked; a quarter of a pound of fewet fhred fmall; half a large fpoonful of powder-fugar; a very little falt, and some grated nutmeg; mix all well together, then take two yolks of eggs, and make it up in balls, as big as a turkey’s egg. Fry them in frefh butter of a fine light brown; for fauce have melted butter and fugar, with a little fack or white wine. You muft mind to keep the pan fhaking about, that they may be all of a fine light brown. "

from Charles Carter’s 1749 cookbook, “The London and Country Cook.”

The ship’s biscuit, the plainest of them all, usually consisted of just flour and water. They were favored by quartermasters and ship’s captains for their ability to last and were baked at least twice, sometimes four or five times to drive as much moisture from the crumb as possible. What was left behind was a hard, barely edible puck, that usually required soaking in beer, coffee, milk, water, broth, or wine to make it more palatable.

“Well a poor boy took his father's bread and started down the road
Took all he had and started down the road
Going out in this world, where God only knows, and that'll be the way to get along
Well poor boy spent all he had, famine come in the land
Spent all he had and famine come in the land, Said,
"I believe I'll go and hire me to some man and that'll be the way I'll get along”
Well, man said, "I'll give you a job for to feed my swine
I'll give you a job for to feed my swine"
Boy stood there and hung his head and cried
Cause that is no way to get along
Said, "I believe I'll ride, believe I'll go back home
Or down the road as far as I can go and that'll be the way to get along
Well, father said, "See my son coming home to me
Father ran and fell down on his knees
Said, "Sing and praise, Lord have mercy on me" Mercy
Poor boy stood and hung his head and cried
Said, "Father will you look on me as a child?"
Yeah well father said, "Eldest son, kill the fatted calf,
Call the family round. Kill that calf and call the family round
My son was lost but now he is found, Cause that's the way for us to get along"

-Robert Wilkins

covered by the Rolling Stones on their album Beggars Banquet

16-1/2 x 5-1/4 x 4-1/4 inches. Bronze, Artist unknown. ca. 1965

A gift to the founder of the Wonder Institute from an elegant collector in Taos whose name has been forgotten.

"Many's the long night I've dreamed of cheese -toasted mostly."
-Robert Louis Stevenson

7 x 5-1/2 x 7-1/2 inches. Metal, chrome, wood, and bakelite. American, ca. 1940's

Still in working condition, this common household appliance of the first half of the Twentieth century would have toasted two slices of bread --between which one might have placed some cheddar.

This item was gifted to the Museum by an environmentalist who moved to an off-the-grid yurt.

"Mordre wol out, certeyn, it wol nat faille."

-Geoffrey Chaucer

5-3/8 x 3-5/8 inches, framed, Oil on panel, dated 1996, signed: "MC"

One of a series of portraits of murderers and suicide victims on display at the Museum. The entire collection may be viewed by scholars, but it is not available for viewing by children or the frail.

"To me every hour of the light and dark is a miracle, every cubic inch of space is a miracle."

-Walt Whitman

6-5/8 x 8-1/2 inches. Paint on tin, dated 1879

Translation of Retablo text (from the original Spanish:)

"Don Alejandro Ramos fell gravely ill from depositions. Seeing him in agony, his desolate son, Don Francisco Ramos, invoked the Lord of little Llano and he was healed. July 1879"

This treasure was left at the door of a very ill woman. She recovered.

"There's nothing serious in mortality, all is but toys."

-William Shakespeare

5-3/4 x 4-3/8 x 11-5/8 inches. Tin, rubber, and paint. American, ca. 1940's.

This toy was abandoned by a child who, like many children, became a man. It was donated to the Museum by the nurse who attended to the disposal of his material goods at the end of life.

"To a shower of gold most things are penetrable."

-Thomas Carlyle

9-3/4 inches diameter. Bone China, gold leaf, gold paint.

Signed "B. Treat" and dated 1932, this plate is one of several painted and "sponged" pieces in the collection of the Museum. It is an example of a nearly lost craft that garners little or no respect in today's world.

"When elephants fight it is the grass the suffers"

-Kikuyu proverb.

10-1/2 x 6 x 8-1/2 inches. Carved and distressed wood. ca. 1970.

This curious elephant, carved out of wood by native artisans, was purchased in the village of Koumra, in the South  of Chad, by a fearless explorer during his fruitful forays deep in Africa.