Arthur Jon Pulos American, 1917–1997 Syracuse, New York
About this artwork
Arthur Pulos designed this server for the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair, describing it as “a coffee pot that could also double as a pitcher with a side handle on it.” Pulos trained as a potter and metalsmith in the late 1930s and worked as an instructor in aircraft design and engineering for the armed forces during World War II. This beverage server unites traditional craft materials—here, sterling silver and ebony—while the smooth, undecorated surface reflects the streamlined aesthetics of industry.
Date
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Oral history interview with Arthur J. Pulos, July 31, 1980 – December 5, 1983, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Jennifer M. Downs, “ ‘The New Modern Feeling’: A Catalogue of the Collection,” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 27, 2 (2001), 101–103, cat. 31.
Judith A. Barter et al., American Modernism at the Art Institute of Chicago, From World War I to 1955, (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago/Yale University Press, 2009), cat. 357.
Judith A. Barter, Elizabeth McGoey, et al., American Silver in the Art Institute of Chicago (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016), cat. 97 (ill.).
Syracuse, New York, 1958 Art Exhibition Syracuse University Faculty School of Art, Feb. 16–Mar. 24, 1958, n.p. (ill.).
Brussels, Belgium, Exposition Universelle et Internationale de Bruxelles, United States Pavillion, Brussels, Apr. 17–Oct. 19, 1958.
The artist, Syracuse, NY, until; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1985.
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