AMONG THE FOUR MILLION FROM LITHOGRAPHS BY JOHN SLOAN

"Beginners"-Mr. Sloan caricatures himself, with his back toward us, struggling with printer, press, and stone to pull proofs of a lithograph.

Some of the following reproductions represent Mr. Sloan's early work in New York. Two were made especially for this art feature. Between extend years of painting and teaching, neither of which Mr. Sloan will abandon, although he now hopes to find more time for lithography, which is a peculiarly happy medium for him.

The roof is the tenement-dweller's week-end resort, or he may commute thither of an evening by climbing countless flights of dirty steps. Rest, relaxation, social intercourse, are what he seeks. The artist has stated all this briefly, convincingly, and at the same time has created out of these very human elements a pattern which lifts a sordid little scene into art.

Free from shop or factory, these girls are enjoying the sun on their bare arms and the prickle of wind through their half-dried hair. Rhythmic lines, flowing from one to the other, individualize each, yet bind them together for the moment, and the vivid young figures contrast sharply with the ominous piles of stone and steel against the horizon.

Four bits of life have fallen together into the sort of pattern that artists love. With clean, strong lines each commonplace character is defined for us so clearly that it does not matter that individually each is not beautiful. Better, each is alive-alive in our

minds because they were first alive in the artist's.

All unconscious of the little comedy in which they share the honors with the fish, this family appears before us. Hundreds of others are crowding through the aquarium, open free on Sunday and always popular. The fish in their big glass boxes are very beautiful. But the artist has concentrated upon making us realize, by his careful management of velvety blacks and sparkling whites, the humorous contrast and kinship between the creatures on each side the glass partition.