CONTEMPORARY ART

When the Society for Contemporary Art was founded, there were no regular exhibitions of Modern Art held in the neighborhood. Started by a group of students, it was a lively organization as long as they were in College, but undergraduate interest in it has grown less and less every year until today few but the dowagers of Brattle Street wander upstairs to look at its exhibitions. Who directs it, and why, remains to most a profound mystery, and it would no doubt have passed out of the control of undergraduates long since had not the trustees resisted such a change.

Simultaneous with the decline of student interest in modern art has come the organization of official exhibitions in the Germanic Museum. These, it is true, are limited to modern German art, but at that they are as interesting if not more so than those held in the Square. It would appear that the days of the Society are numbered, doomed by competition and lack of interest, for even if the old enthusiasm were to return, exhibitions arranged by students could rarely compare with those of the University with all their contacts and facilities to draw upon.

Only one field remains in which the Society can serve any real purpose. The occasional House exhibitions provide some stimulus to creative art in the College and to collecting, but there is need of more unity. It is doubtful in the present state of lassitude whether this will occur, but unless the Society for Contemporary Art takes on a new lease of life, it is difficult to justify its existence except as a vent for the executive urge of its officers.