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rations turning from murals to say, "oh, that must have been painted during the Great Depression." He now thinks much of the work that has been done is worthy of congratulations all around.

There has been a change not only in quality, but in theme. When art and relief first encountered one another, propaganda and preaching were the frequent result. It seemed that the muralists, not a few of them hungry after the dark days of '31 and '32 and '33 were out to emulate the Mexican Syndicate of Revolutionary Artists, led by Diego Rivera and Jose Clemete Orozco, to try with a brush what Lonin did with a pen, to employ a wall as Trotsky used a pletform -- and all in the name of art. But, Mr. Piezotto has observed, such a propaganda of a year or so ago is fading this year into what he called "constructive themes." In one of the textile high schools, for example, the murals tell the history of costumes from Cleopatra's time almost -- but not quite -- down to Sally Rand's.

What is the explanation of that. Not just the difference between a full and a half-empty stomach. For one thing it is the quality of artists. At first many of the better artists, even when down on their upports, were reluctant to go on relief. In the first batches of artists to sign for Federal Jobs were a large proportion who might have been described as fugitives from a Greenwhich Village brain gang. Most of them were wooded out only as quality came to the fore. 

Loan Years for Artists
Tho darker days of the depression were really blacker years for artists than for most other, whether in business or the professions. It was indeed a rare individual who brought workers of art. That left