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my judgment, one of the most important civic services that any one can
render.

Art is like a large tree which sends forth branches and if one
studies the history of art one can understand to an amazing extent the
quality of the people who lived at the time that art was produced. It
is very important, therefore, that we should recognize art - important
too that we recognize the art of our day and not only the art of yester-
day.

We are living in a world so changed to those of us who have reached
middle life that it hardly seems the same world. Space has vanished
through the radio and the telephone. The difference between electricity
and candle light can only be understood by those who have had both and
as for gas, it is now practically an unknown quantity, except as means
for cooking. Therefore, the artist had to change his mode of expression.
He who was sensitive to our time had to express himself differently from
formerly. This new form, or new branch on the tree of art, we have termed
Modern Art to distinguish it from contemporary art which is based on the
past. Our present art is based on the same forces which have brought
about the electricity and the radio. New Problems are being taken up all
the time.

Take for instance the problem of creating art out of nothing. This
group is called "The Dadaists", for they wish to emphasize that art ex-
ists in the individual and not in the object. In other words, you receive
what you give. If your attitude towards art is that of patronage and you
feel that you have nothing to learn through the arts, you receive nothing.
It is a closed book which no key will open. But, if you will give some
time each day to looking at some beautiful object, it will speak to you
and reveal itself to you.

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1 - I am going to throw on the screen a photograph of what Kurt Schwitters calls his "Merz" Pictures. He created a new name for them, because they are made of scraps of paper, etc. And yet he has combined these scraps which most people throw away, for they consist of transfers and so forth. You will see six of these remarkable little pictures upstairs. Even in the black and white you will be conscious of an amazing balance of values, which is the foundation of art. Art is the relativity of objects in form of beauty.

2 - Or take Léger, who is so impressed with the mechanical side of life, that he takes objects which most people feel have little art value. He, too, places them in relation to each other in such a way that beauty results.

3 - Or take Brancusi, who only tries to reveal the essence of his subjects. Upstairs we have an example of a water bird, the essence of something that floats on the water, quivering and alive. He has facetiously called it "Leda" after the old Greek legend. There is a marvelous exhibition of about 36 of his works at the Brummer Gallery, which I would advise you to see, for it is a rare opportunity to study this master.

4 - Another man who has discarded everything but the essence, who however expresses himself in painting instead of sculpture, is Mondrian, who has reached a clarification which is amazing. So simple is this painting which you will see upstairs in black and white that it looks as if anybody could do it. Yet so delicate is the relationship and the variation of his lines that only a master could render them.

5 - Just before going upstairs I want to show you one other painter.

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A man who has interpreted the essence of the Brooklyn Bridge. When Roebling, who recently died, saw this painting, for he had assisted his father in the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, he said that for the first time there appeared a painting of the Brooklyn Bridge as conceived by his father. The other paintings never showed the true beauty of proportion, they lacked the essence, that subtle fine quality which escapes so many people. You will now see why it is important to have paintings in the home. Because unless you live with them and learn to understand their language, only the obvious is apparent to you. The delicate, subtle qualities that enrich life are lost.