George Edward Woodberry
“Mankind is the grandest and surest artist of all.”
The Torch (1905)
Documented source
Attribution
George Edward Woodberry
Source
The Torch (1905)
Status
Public domain in the United States
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About this line
Most people picture art as something made by individuals in studios. Woodberry makes a far bigger claim: civilization itself — language, architecture, music, the whole accumulated record of what humanity has thought and felt — is the artwork. One no single person could have made, and one still being made.
Why we carry this line
The idea that all of us together are making one enormous work of art stopped me — and I’d never even heard of Woodberry. The discovery is half of why it’s here.
The design
No illustration. The words carry everything. The lettering runs in capitals on a rising diagonal, as if the thought is still in motion, the way the work Woodberry describes is still being made.
Objects carrying this line
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