Is it necessary to your enjoyment that you should?
Do you understand what Caruso is singing?
Do you understand that French song reproduced by the phonograph?
Do you understand what the orchestra is playing?
Do you understand the pattern in that Persian rug?
How many people who rave over Japanese art have the remotest idea what this or that precious print or painting represents?
Does an intricate design on a bit of Oriental pottery please you? And is your enjoyment lessened one whit by the fact it is all a mystery to you?
Why will you accept as beautiful and buy at a high price a painting you do not understand because it is by a Chinese artist, and reject as ugly the painting by a French artist simply because you cannot see “what he is driving at”?
Suppose a Cubist picture is a beautiful scheme of color; is it less beautiful in color because you do not understand the painter’s theory? His painting may be fine, his theory absurd.