In fall 2013, the New-York Historical Society will present a major exhibition celebrating the centennial year of the legendary 1913 Armory Show. On view from October 11, 2013 through February 23, 2014, The Armory Show at 100: When New York Exploded into the Modern World brings together iconic works by European modernists such as, Marcel Duchamp, Henri Matisse, Francis Picabia, Constantin Brancusi and Pablo Picasso with works by the “triumvirate” of precursors to modernism—Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, and Vincent Van Gogh—in an exploration of how the Armory Show inspired seismic shifts in American culture, politics, and society. The exhibition will include a diverse cross-section of the American masterworks, such as impressionist Childe Hassam, urban realist Robert Henri, and visionary Albert Pinkham Ryder, who are often overlooked in accounts of the event despite the fact that about half the works included in the exhibition were by American artists.
Officially known as the 1913 International Exhibition of Modern Art, the Armory Show is widely acknowledged as one of the most important exhibitions held in the United States and is remembered as a turning point in the history of American art, introducing the European avant-garde to America. This examination of the Armory Show will be the most comprehensive exhibition about the event in 2013, offering a unique opportunity during the centennial year to experience the reunion of approximately ninety masterworks from the show.
The Armory Show at 100 also will contextualize the event with artifacts, historical documents, and archival photographs to evoke the social and intellectual currents of this time period, with major events including the inauguration of Woodrow Wilson as president in 1913, Americans marching for suffrage, the re-opening of Grand Central Terminal as the world’s largest train station, and the Woolworth Building becoming the world’s tallest skyscraper. The behind-the-scenes story of the making of the 1913 Armory Show also will be told through a selection of letters, postcards, and photographs that document the dissent and divisions that the exhibition inspired in the New York art world.
“It will be a great thrill to experience the reunion of iconic artworks and honor an event that forever changed the art world,” said Louise Mirrer, President and CEO of New-York Historical. “The New-York Historical Society will present this exhibition with an interdisciplinary display that evokes the social and intellectual currents of New York in this time period.”
Exhibition Highlights
Curated by New-York Historical’s Marilyn Kushner, Curator and Head, Department of Prints, Photographs, and Architectural Collections; and Kimberly Orcutt, Henry Luce Foundation Curator of American Art, The Armory Show at 100 will begin by setting the scene of the art world in 1913 with examples of paintings exhibited that year at the National Academy of Design, a bastion of conservative taste, as well as examples of Old Master works that New Yorkers collected. Approximately ninety masterworks from the 1913 Armory Show will follow this vignette, powerfully illustrating the transition from the past to the future, and the impact of the avant-garde on American audiences.
Duchamp’s Nude Descending a Staircase (No. 2) (1912) was considered scandalous and was roundly mocked by the media of the day, such as in a March 1913 Cubist-inspired cartoon in The Evening Sun newspaper, seen in reproduction in the show, that depicted “The Rude Descending a Staircase (Rush Hour at the Subway).” Many works on view initially shocked 1913 audiences but are now considered masterpieces, such as
Matisse’s Blue Nude (1907), which was seen as immoral and depraved.
Although Matisse’s work was more clearly representative than that of Duchamp, it was nonetheless perceived as childlike and primitive, and an attack on traditional standards of beauty.
Picabia’s fragmented Cubist painting Dances at the Spring (1912) was compared to a patchwork quilt.
Anticipating that the avant-garde works might shock or confound American audiences encountering new styles for the first time, the organizers of the original Armory Show included work by Post-Impressionists and other once-revolutionary artists that were acclaimed as great masters by 1913. Organizers hoped that this juxtaposition would help viewers understand that artworks that are once considered revolutionary and outrageous are often later accepted and understood. Gauguin’s Tahitian paintings, including
Words of the Devil (1892),
were met with some controversy, but many considered them more resonant with modern life than the work of Cubists and Fauves. Some became quite well-regarded by American audiences, as seen with
Cézanne’s View of the Domaine Saint-Joseph (late 1880s) which became the first of the artist’s works in an American museum when it was purchased from the show by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The Armory Show featured a number of American artists who were leading figures of the Ashcan School. John Sloan often captured scenes of working class men and women on the Lower East Side, such as
Sunday, Women Drying Their Hair (1912).
Robert Henri’s life-sized oil painting
Figure in Motion (1913) may have been created in contrast to Duchamp’s nude, as a sort of rebellious manifesto to challenge the Armory Show organizers.
John Marin’s watercolor series of Manhattan buildings included abstract studies of the Woolworth Building, which was the world’s tallest building when it was finished in 1913.
Publication
A fully-illustrated scholarly catalogue will be produced in conjunction with The Armory Show at 100, re-examining the 1913 exhibition and its historical and cultural context. Edited by curators Marilyn Kushner and Kimberly Orcutt, along with Senior Historian for the Armory Show and Professor of History and American Studies at Columbia University Casey Blake, the accompanying catalogue (Giles, October 2013) will feature thirty-one essays from a range of prominent scholars, shedding new light on the artists represented, the public reception of the works, and how the media responded to this legendary exhibition.
More images, and credits for above images:
Marsden Hartley (American, 1877-1943), Still Life, No. 1, 1912. Oil on canvas, 31 1⁄2 x 25 5/8 in. Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio: Gift of Ferdinand Howald, 1931.184.
Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853-1890), Mountains at Saint Rémy (Montagnes à Saint- Rémy), 1889. Oil on canvas, 28 1⁄4 x 35 3⁄4 in. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Thannhauser Collection, Justin K. Thannhauser, 1978, 78.2514.24
Maurice Prendergast (American, 1859-1924), Landscape with Figures, ca. 1910-12. Oil on canvas, 38 1⁄2 x 52 3⁄4 in. Edward W. Root Bequest, 57.212, Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, Utica, New York. Image, Art Resource, NY
Honoré Daumier (French, 1808–1879), Third Class Carriage (Un Wagon de Troisième Classe), 1856–58. Oil on panel, 101⁄4 × 133⁄8 in. (26 × 33.9 cm). Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Museum purchase, Whitney Warren, Jr. Bequest Fund in memory of Mrs. Adolph B. Spreckels, Bequest funds of Henry S. Williams in memory of H. K. S. Williams, Magnin Income Fund, Art Trust Fund, Alexander and Jean de Bretteville Fund, Art Acquisition Endowment Income Fund in honor of Mrs. John N. Rosekrans, 1996.51
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French, 1841-1919), Algerian Girl, 1881. Oil on canvas, 20 x 16 in. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Juliana Cheney Edwards Collection, 39.677
Henri Matisse (French, 1869-1954), Blue Nude, 1907. Oil on canvas, 36 1⁄4 x 55 1⁄4 in. The Baltimore Museum of Art: The Cone Collection, formed by Dr. Claribel Cone and Miss Etta Cone of Baltimore, Maryland, BMA 1950.228. © 2013 Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photography by Mitro Hood.
John Sloan (American, 1871-1951), Sunday, Women Drying Their Hair, 1912. Oil on canvas, 26 1/8 x 32 1/8 in. Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, Museum Purchase, 1938.67.
© 2013 Delaware Art Museum /Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Paul Gauguin (French, 1848-1903), Parau na te Varua ino (Words of the Devil), 1892. Oil on canvas, 36 1/8 x 26 15/16 in. National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of the W. Averell Harriman Foundation in memory of Marie N. Harriman. Courtesy of the National Gallery of Art, Washington
John Marin (American, 1870-1953), Woolworth Building, No. 28, 1912. Watercolor over graphite, 18 1⁄2 x 15 9/16 in. National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer. © 2013 Estate of John Marin / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Francis Picabia (French, 1879-1953), Dances at the Spring, 1912. Oil on canvas, 47 7/16 x 47 1⁄2 in. Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Louise and Walter Arensberg Collection, 1950, 1950-134-155. © 2013 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
Marcel Duchamp (French, 1887-1968), Nude Descending a Staircase (No. 2), 1912. Oil on canvas, 57 7/8 x 35 1/8 in. Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Louise and Walter Arensberg Collection, 1950, 1950- © 2013 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris / Succession Marcel Duchamp
134-59.