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You Don’t Have to Shout to Be Heard

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The Daily Pic: Anne Ryan expresses the quieter emotions.

An untitled collage from 1950 by Anne Ryan

(Permission of Anne Ryan Estate, courtesy Washburn Gallery)

This is an untitled collage by Anne Ryan from around 1950, now in a show called “Signs & Symbols” that has been assembled from the Abstract Expressionist holdings of the Whitney Museum of American Art. The exhibition involves a lot of angst, brooding and spirit possession, so Ryan’s piece comes as a relief, revealing that quieter emotions and states are just as worthy of expression – that a swatch book can be as potent as any volume of incantations. (Note that Ryan's first name was incorrect in an earlier version of this posting)

For a full visual survey of past Daily Pics visit blakegopnik.com/archive.

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Blake Gopnik is a contributing critic to Newsweek and The Daily Beast and writes on art and design for a wide range of publications. He previously spent a decade as chief art critic of The Washington Post and before that was an arts editor and critic in Canada. He has a doctorate in art history from Oxford University, and has written on aesthetic topics ranging from Facebook to gastronomy.

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