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18
of a
any great power any where is of a universal.content. The environment and circumstances would place art, art of the place, or critics will call aet of a particular time, but our intercourse and relations with world culture are so near to each other.

Future art of the U.S. to me, is a very important focusing point of the whole world. It may come soon or how long it will take to reach the flowering heights I do not know. But the U.S. has a better chance to reach that point more than any other nation in the world. Not only the stimulus we get from [[?]] foreign painting of the past and present but endless sources of great treasures in the museums and private collections throughout the country. But I am not speaking about this only as to why America will take a leading part in the future of the art [[?]] world. Often people discuss the future of France and their art. My theory is if compared with history of the rise and fall of culture, to me France is [[?]] declining in its civilization since Napoleon III's period and at that time, great painters like Ingres, Delacroix, ect. appeared and since that time art has been declining and going more towards the direction of decadency. I don't say that it is a way down in the scale, but I don't believe France will produce a powerful, healthy art until they build another civilization. It is true with China as well as Japan, Persia, India. I don't think art suddenly happens. The cultural development has to go parallel with its civilization. It may now appear that the cultural side is very much in evidence but they are traveling with the same speed, but when you survey the world the U.S. has been reaching toward that direction more than any other nation. Sometime in the future I believe we will reach that peak. Like the rise and fall of the Roman Empire; when at the time we were going down hill