means a matter of how the Greeks or the Egyptians or any other race
has shown it to be for their own needs and satisfaction. If art was
necessary to them, it is unnecessary to us now, therefore it is free
to express itself as it will. You will find, therefore, that if you
are aware of yourself, you will be your own perfect dada-ist, in that
you are for the first time riding your own hobby-horse into infinity
of sensation through experience, and that you are one more
satisfactory vaudevillian among the multitudes of dancing legs and
flying wits. You will learn after all that the bugaboo called LIFE is
a matter of the tightrope and that the stars will shine their frisky
approval as you glide, if you glide sensibly, with an eye on the fun
in the performance. That is what art is to be, must come to in the
consciousness of the artist most of all, he is perhaps the greatest
offender in matters of judgment and taste; and the next greatest
offender is the dreadful go-between or "middleman" esthete who so
glibly contributes effete values to our present day conceptions.
We must all learn what art really is, learn to relieve it from the
surrounding stupidities and from the passionate and useless admiration
of the horde of false idolaters, as well as the money changers in the
temple of success. Dada-ism offers the first joyous dogma I have
encountered which has been invented for the release and true freedom
of art. It is therefore most welcome since it will put out of use all
heavy hands and light fingers in the business of art and set them to
playing a more honourable and sportsmanlike game. We shall learn
through dada-ism that art is a witty and entertaining pastime, and not
to be accepted as our ever present and stultifying affliction.
* * * * *
End of Project Gutenberg's Adventures in the Arts, by Marsden Hartley