NY Historical Society: The Armory Show at 100

The NY Historical Society has done a wonderful job of recreating the 1913 Armory Show, arguably the most significant art exhibit ever held in this country.  It was here that America received its first full scale introduction to Cubism, Fauvism and other schools of modern art that had already transformed European cultural horizons.

The Armory Show was not the first opportunity Americans had had to view avant garde European work.  Alfred Stieglitz had regularly been showing modern art, selected by Edward Steichen in Paris and then shipped to New York, at his 291 Gallery on Fifth Avenue. Groundbreaking as these exhibits were, though, they never reached a large audience and failed to exert any great influence on American culture.  It was the notoriety, with all its attendant publicity, created by the Armory Show that finally succeeded in penetrating the American consciousness and making it aware of the movements that were revolutionizing the art world in the early twentieth century.  At the same time, America was losing the isolationist stance that had kept it apart from Europe and was preparing its entrance onto the world stage.  Only a year after the Armory Show, World War I broke out.  It was America's entry into the war in 1917 that not only decided its outcome but positioned this country as the world's leading power.

Although I had expected the current exhibit, The Armory Show at 100: Modern Art and Revolution, to contain a number of works from the original show, I had not realized beforehand how many masterpieces would actually be on view.  Though most art lovers have long been familiar with these works, it was astonishing to see them placed side by side in recreations of the galleries from the original show.  Looking at them, I was able to understand the impact these works must have had on the New Yorkers who saw them in 1913.  The presentation was overpowering.  Here was the infamous painting Nude Descending a Staircase (No. 2) by Marcel Duchamp placed across the room from Blue Nude by Henri Matisse.  In between them stood a case containing sculptures, among them Portrait of Mlle Pogany, by Constantin Brancusi.  Also displayed were Mountain in Saint-Rémy by Vincent Van Gogh as well as works by Munch, Gauguin, Delacroix, Kirchner, Whistler, Renoir, Daumier, Redon, Picabia and Braque.  The painting View of Domaine Saint-Joseph by Paul Cézanne was purchased by the Metropolitan Museum at the original show and so became the first of the artist's works to be included in the collection of an American museum.  Many of the pieces on display, however, were not paintings but graphic works, a less expensive alternative for those collectors who in 1913 wished to begin acquiring modern art.

Another striking feature of the exhibit, one which I had never before considered, was the number of works by American artists not usually associated with modernism.  These included paintings by Albert Pinkham Ryder and Childe Hassam as well as works by members of the Ashcan School - Henri, Sloan and Bellows.

The exhibit continues through February 23, 2014.