Works of art prize uniqueness while utilitarian handicraft requires generality

Evidence

In the case of a work of art, we are the less interested in its style, the greater the personal uniqueness and the subjective life expressed in it. For, it is with these that it appeals to the spectator’s personal core, too of the spectator who, so to speak, is alone in the whole world with this work of art. But of what we call handicraft which because of its utilitarian purpose appeals to a diversity of men we request a more general and typical articulation. — Georg Simmel, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, 8268

Categorization

• XREF: Simmel’s art-vs-handicraft axis foreshadows the modern art-object vs design/commodity distinction — connects to Benjamin’s aura and the craft-market debates.