Word: utilitarian
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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...Kansas in 1888, attended Stanford University, studied painting at the Slade School and with Walter Sickert in London, and at the Julian Academy in Paris. After painting for several years, he found himself distressed by "the devitalizing isolation of the studio." Believing that modern art naturally tends to enhance utilitarian objects, Painter Poor became Potter Poor. He has now thoroughly infused his art with mundane strength. From shaping delicate urns and saucers, he turns cheerfully to designing a series of mosaic tiles for the Byzantine ceiling of the Union Dime Savings Bank in Manhattan, or a bathroom of mellow tiles...
Most definitions of art are vague, inconclusive. Italian Philosopher Benedetto Croce murmurs abstrusely of "expression." Spanish Philosopher George Santayana distinguishes art as an extension of utilitarian practices into the realm where utility is forgotten and pleasure begins. Thus, a tribal dance pleading for the gift of rain is not art, whereas a ballet, tripped for its own sake, may be. In Manhattan, last week Sculptor George Gray Barnard defined art as the creations of those who possess the "Great...
...their white wands with a gilded flame at the top. Perhaps it was from this arrangement, which glorified the American love of uniform and title, perhaps from the fact that the fire-house provided a comfortable meeting place, that the fire companies soon became social as well as utilitarian organizations. They were the forerunners of the future mushroom growth of fraternities and orders in the United States, and with their regalias, officiaidoms, and regular meetings furnished the model for subsequent convivial groups...
Robots exists for purposes utilitarian; they turn switches, open doors, and report accomplishment of necessary duties; but always because they are obliged to. The essence of the robot lies in its being compelled to do things. His very automatonism implies inevitability and consequent compulsion. How blind are they, therefore who would link a robot with the masterful beau geste which fills an entire blue book for the simple run of the thing. Only humanity in its most sparkling moments could produce so shining an example of the spirit "pour ie sport...
...have built 17 automobiles with color schemes derived from paintings by 17 famed artists, from Botticelli to John Singer Sargent. The purpose was to use precisely the colors of the paintings; to give each color its proper value; to distribute the colors so that the result would be practical, utilitarian...