e economically. However,
with the advent of adequate, efficient, and controllable light, the
potentiality of light as an artistic medium may be drawn upon and the
lighting artist with a deep insight into the possibilities of artificial
light now has his opportunity. But the artist who believes that a new
art may be evolved to perfection in a few years is doomed to
disappointment, for it is necessary only to view retrospectively such
arts as painting and music to be convinced that understanding and
appreciation develop slowly through centuries of experiment and contact.

Will lighting ever become a fine art? Will it ever be able alone to
arouse emotional man as do the fine arts? Are the powers of light
sufficiently great to enthrall mankind without the aid of form, music,
action, or spoken words? It is safer to answer "yes" than "no" to these
questions. Painting has reached a high place as an art and this art is
the expressiveness of secondary or reflected light reinforced by
imitation forms, which by a combination of light and drawing comprise
the "subjects." A painting is a momentary expression of light, a
cross-section of something mobile, such as nature, thought, or action.
Light has the essential qualifications of painting with the advantages
of a greater range of brightness, of greater purity of colors, and the
great potentiality of mobility. If lighting becomes a fine art it will
doubtless be related to painting somewhat in the same manner that
architecture is akin to sculpture. With the introduction of mobility it
will borrow something from the arts of succession and especially from
music.

The art of lighting in its present infancy is leaning upon established
arts, just as the infant learns to walk alone by first depending upon
support. The use of color in painting developed slowly, being supported
for centuries by the strength of drawing or subject. The landscapes of a
century ago were dull, for color was employed hesitatingly and
sparingly. The colors in the portraits of the past merely represented
the gorgeous dress of bygone days. But the painter of the present shows
that color is beginning to be used for itself and that the painter is no
longer hesitant concerning its power to go hand in hand with drawing.
Drafting and coloring are now in partnership, the former having given up
guardianship when the latter reached maturity.

Lighting is now an accompaniment of the drama, of the dance, of
architecture, of