formal settings of the architecture, out of proportion to the initiative
of the artists, a majority of whom prefer, either from inclination or
necessity, to take the safe course, the beaten path of precedent.
Artists are of two kinds - the Imitators and the Innovators. The public
also is of two corresponding kinds - those who accept only what they
have learned to regard as good, preferring imitations of it to anything
requiring the acquisition of a new viewpoint; and that other kind,
receptive to new sensations. The first class is the more numerous, which
explains why most of our art, in fact most of all art, is imitative -
that is, imitative of the works of other artists.

The sculpture and mural decorations of the buildings and grounds of the
Exposition adequately represent the output of American art today. It is
the best possible collection under existent conditions.

Its many sources of inspiration - all European, like the sources of our
racial origin - are clothed in outward resemblances of the styles and
tinged with the thought of the masters, old and new, who constitute
Precedent. Thus, in sculpture we have imitations, conscious or
unconscious, of the Greek, of Michael Angelo, Donatello, Rodin, Barye,
Meunier, Saint Gaudens; in painting, of Besnard, Merson, Monet, et
cetera, as well as some more complex personal notes, more difficult to
relate, although they too are related in the main, adding only another
variation of character to the great mass of human ideality. As in
nature, there is nothing absolutely pure - nothing that can exist
totally unrelated to the whole - so it is in art. Its works should be
judged, not by their absolute adherence to any so-called standard, but
finally by the appeal they make to the receptive and unprejudiced mind.

Be brave, Mr. Critic - Madame Public, think for yourself, at the risk of