Living American Art

Abstract

THE Contemporary American Art Exhibition of the New York World's Fair 1939 is the measure of art's coming of age in America. At last, American art and artists have come into their own. Despite the failure of the Fair's management to provide in its original plans for exhibiting the work of living American artists, the Contemporary Arts Building now stands one of the handsomest in the Fair grounds. And though the artists of America would prefer the 80,000 feet of space they asked for, the 40,000 received makes possible an imposing display of almost twelve hundred paintings, sculptures, prints and drawings. Art in America has come a long way since William W. Story, American commissioner of fine arts for the Paris Exposition of 1878, wrote his jeremiad.