A NEW AND POWERFUL INSTRUMENT has been placed at the service of American art.
When C. Powell Minnegerode, director of the Corcoran Gallery, sent the following
telegram to Henry Luce, congratulating Life on its "Pageant of America" series of contem-
porary painting commissions, he expressed the overwhelming opinion of the entire American art world.
Said Mr. Minnegerode: " Life's commissioning of these paintings is a further step in the program of
art education which, over the past two years, has made Life the most significant single force in the
appreciation of art in America." Corcoran's director had put into words the thoughts of all of us who,
through the years, have labored to do in our small circumscribed area what Life is doing on a national
scale.

This volume, dedicated to America's new school of native painting, was possible only because of
Life's deep interest in the growth of American art appreciation and the fact that its editors had saga-
ciously recognized the presence of an authentic American School even before it became the vital move-
ment it is today. Life, as one more contribution to the cause of American Art, has very generously
made available to the publishers of Modern American Painting the beautiful full-color plates which in
the following pages herald the coming-of-age of art in the New World.

All except one of the paintings reproduced in this book are, therefore, a selection from Life's
fine continuing series on American artists and it would not have been possible to present these expensive
engravings for so moderate a price had not Life made its plates available in book form.

With its circulation of more than 2,300,000, Life is doing a remarkable job of art education.
This has never been done on such a scale before. Under the banner of Henry Luce, and his associates
and assistants, this work of carrying appreciation and knowledge of art to the far comers of the land
has been wisely guided. The eventual effect of such mass-impact of art upon the dormant sensitivities
of an entire nation, like the Government's entry into art patronage, cannot help but react to the greater
health of American art. Life has widened the circle.

Following the principal text of this book, the reader will find, arranged in alphabetical order,
biographies of each of the artists and comments about the paintings that are reproduced here. At the
end there is included a Catalogue of Paintings where, together with other data, are listed the galleries
and owners to whom I am greatly indebted for their kind permission to reproduce these paintings.

I want at this point to express my appreciation for the valuable collaboration rendered this book
by artist Margit Varga, of Life, who wrote the biographies of the artists whose work is reproduced,
and who shares with me an unbounded faith and enthusiasm for modem American painting.

PEYTON BOSWELL, JR.

-v-