Word: archaism
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...generally assumed that we cannot by conscious action do anything about it: Our civilization is decadent, and our language--so the argument runs--must inevitably share in the general collapse. It follows that any struggle against the abuse of language is a sentimental archaism, like preferring candles to electric light or hansom cabs to aeroplanes. Underneath this lies the half-conscious belief that language is a natural growth and not an instrument we shape for our own purposes...
...originally cut from a LIFE magazine ad and stuck on; in Woman and Bicycle, 1952-53, there are two smiles, one where it should be, the other arranged like a necklace of teeth around the throat. With such paintings de Kooning brought off the near impossible joining of expressionist archaism with pop-style '50s femininity...