Art for all by Miss Vida Lahey

w h i c h the violence or s o m e other aspect of o u r times is suggested, t h e y b e c o m e m o r e u n d e r s t a n d a b l e to h i m . S o in t h e w o r k o f t h e m o d e r n s w e al c s h o w n a record of t h e c l u m b longings, the h a r s h rebellions, the necessary c o m p e n s a t i o n s of life to-day, together w i t h the struggle to achieve a m e a n i n g a n d create a n e w unity f r o m its chaotic elements. T h e m a i n tendencies of m o d e r n art first a p p e a r e d in the· pictures of V a n G o g h . G a u g u i n . a n d C e z a n n e , a n d the connection of these w o r k s w i t h m o d e r n conditions is clear. I n the w o r k of Van Gogh we find at its greatest intensity a feverish response to life. T o h i m the quality in a tree, of being a l m o s t terrifyingly alive a n d growing, is t h e m o s t i m p o r t a n t truth a b o u t a tree- --lt 1% useless t o a s k of h i m a serene Victorian landscape, w i t h trees v i e w e d m e r e l y as part of the furniture of the earth. T h i s intensitv of perception leads h i m to see in a chair or a n old b o o t m o r e vivid life t h a n m o s t of u s c a n see in a h u m a n being. T h i s desire for intenser life w e find r e p r o d u c e d in society in a febrile f o r m in jazz music, night clubs, a n d in t h e fascinated interest in those stunts w h e r e ever greater risks c o m e into play. In G a u g u i n ' s decision to share the life of the natives in Tahiti w e find the desire to e s c a p e to the g o l d e n age, to explore the a g e of c h i l d h o o d a n d fantasy. Social equivalents t o this are the s t u d y of p s y c h o l o g y a n d all t h e back-to-nature cults, n u d i s m , interest in t h e primitive, etc. In C e z a n n e w e find s u c h search for organic order a n d s u c h p r o f o u n d studies in t h e relationships of f o r m a n d colour a s w e r e n o t u n d e r - stcxxi until after his d e a t h and, in fact, are still n o t fully digested. Einstein is his sc.ientific equivalent, So if y o u d o not like the ugliness of m o d e r n art, and its rest- lessness, then give the artist a serene a n d peaceful world in which to live, a n d art will soon reflect it. If y o u tind the artist's w o r k obscure, clarify the world's problems and art will quickly respond. If y o u think their pictures crazy, give t h e m a saner world to paint. It hardly comes well in a world so m a d that food is destroyed a n d production limited while millions are starving, to complain of a lack of sanity in the artists. For they can onlv reflect or react from the conditions as they find them. W h e r e lies the blame ? It is the fault of the age in which w e live, pills the unbalanced edtication w e have all received. Since the industrial age began, m a n has c o m e to mistake scientific a n d material progress for true development a n d civilisatien. This unequal stress w e find again in education, a n d for this w e can blame the limiting idea that it is through books alone that one becomes educated a n d that passing examinations ism o r e important than developing the whole of the child's capacities. This has kept us, both artists a n d public, from our birthright-· the power to live fully. W i t h the combination of words w e are all familiar u p to a point ; with the combination of sounds a n d those of shapes a n d colours, that is, with music and painting, w e to a great exte.nt are ignorant, owing to a faultv education. Should not the ..tudy