\ THE ARTS.
The popular attitude towards modern art is changing. We hear less of the explosive wrath that accused moderns of inability to draw, of mental disease, of the desire to shock, and more of a plaintive " It is probably all very wonderful, but I am afraid I don't understand it." There remains, even in otherwise cultured people, a naive confusion of Impressionism, Futurism and Cubism, seasoned, by the more academic, with Bolshevism. We have found that modem art is more easily appreciated by young working men whose artistic vision is comparatively unimpaired, who are open to receive a direct visual effect without questioning its conformity to any theory of what art should be, than it is by the artist or critic who is petrified in an old tradition. To this simple vision Cezanne or Matisse is no less " lifelike " than Giotto or Rubens ; it accepts the conventions of art without under- standing them, and is open to be pleased by any convention. There is no fixed idea of a right convention. It is only by deliberately forcing our minds to this simple receptivity that we can come to the appreciation of any unaccustomed thing. We must do this now if we wish to avoid stagnation. The day is past when we could flatter ourselves that this art which we did not understand could be laughed at. Mr. Gordon's book, if it is approached with a determination to be free from prejudice, will be of very great assistance towards an under- standing of modern art. His arguments are not unassailable. There is no infallibility in criticism. But the underlying truths of his exposition are triumphantly proved by the painters about whom he writes. The test of all art theories is in practice. The theory is only useful to spring-clean our minds that we may appreciate the new furniture as well as the old, and to satisfy the natural craving of man (who persists in regarding himself as rational) to understand the thing which moves him. We have emphasized the value of Mr. Gordon's book for " the ordinary man who is interested in Art, or for the Art student at the outset of his or her career," because it is written for them. But his book cannot be ignored by " the expert." General theory naturally pre- dominates over the examination of individual artists, and to that he does not bring anything very new, but there is matter to stimulate thought and a vivid manner of present- ment. The forty colour and black-and-white illustrations are excellently chosen and well reproduced.
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