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gain revealed when he speaks enthusiastically of Hogarth's "Analysis of Beauty" as being the forefather of modern painting. And one understands more of his principles when he mentions his heroes in painting, Paolo Uccello, Ingres, David, Picasso.

From this it is evident that Gorky is a modern painter. He himself explains, when queried as to what prizes he has won, "Do modern painters ever win prizes at the salons?" But what is "modern?" In an obvious sense modern is cubist or abstract. But there is more to the modern spirit in painting than a style. This Gorky insists on. Actually he would say that "modern" means a certain way of looking at life in this transitional period. It means observing the outside world which surrounds the artist, but observing it not in terms of memory, nostalgia or association, but in terms of its own forms and textures. This means that the modern painter does not go back to Piero della Francesco for his inspiration, or his organization of form; instead he uses the discoveries "of our ancestors, as Picasso" to continue that exploration of experience which is the artist's function. "How, "asks Gorky,"can I understand those men of another century when I can't even understand the world today?"