Word: vital
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Vast in scale (though not always in size), lush and rigorous in color, his cutouts are among the most admired and influential works of Matisse's entire career. They belong with the grandest affirmations of the élan vital in Western art. Dr. Johnson once remarked that the prospect of being hanged wonderfully concentrates the mind. In 1941, when he was 71, Matisse nearly died of an intestinal blockage and was bedridden for much of his remaining time. But he felt reborn, and the cut-outs would serve as most eloquent witnesses...
...autumn is a blatantly vital season, contrary to the allegations of sorrowful poets who misconstrue the message of dying leaves. A more realistic poet, Archibald MacLeish, says that "Autumn is the American season. In Europe the leaves turn yellow or brown and fall. Here they take fire on the trees and hang there flaming. Life, too, we think, is capable of taking fire in this country; of creating beauty never seen...
...ruined if it followed through. Now, utilities in the U.S. and elsewhere are delighted to have a new source of supply. On a loftier plane, Fraser said, "The advent of Australia as a major supplier of uranium will make certain that Australia's voice on this most vital problem of international affairs -nuclear weapons proliferation-will be heard...
...example?it does not really have to prove its mettle by maintaining "in perpetuity" an achievement of the steam age. Moreover, in adjusting to a changing situation and sharing its accomplishments with the rest of the world, the nation demonstrates skills and ingenuity of a different but no less vital sort. In that sense, the Panama Canal will always be American...
...down stiffly, as though he were carrying something partly up his sleeve. Five minutes later she heard shots and the wail of a car horn. Next day, learning of the double shooting, she was certain the passing stranger had been the killer. When detectives questioned her, she recalled another vital detail: she had seen a cop tagging a cream-colored car parked illegally near a fire hydrant one block from the murder site...