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10/10/2013

The Armory Show at 100

New York Historical Society, New York

NEW YORK, NY, October 9, 2013 – The New-York Historical Society will present a major exhibition celebrating the centennial of the legendary 1913 Armory Show, offering a rare opportunity to experience the reunion of more than 100 masterpieces from the iconic event. On view from October 11, 2013 through February 23, 2014, The Armory Show at 100: Modern Art and Revolution will feature works by European modernists, including Marcel Duchamp, Henri Matisse, Francis Picabia, Constantin Brancusi, and Pablo Picasso; influential precursors to modernism, such as Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, and Vincent van Gogh; and leading American artists Childe Hassam, Robert Henri, John Marin, Albert Pinkham Ryder, John Sloan, and others who are often overlooked in accounts of the event, despite the fact that half the works featured in the exhibition were by American artists. Officially known as the 1913 International Exhibition of Modern Art, the Armory Show is one of the most important exhibitions ever held in the United States and is remembered as a turning point in American art history, introducing the European avant-garde to America.

The Armory Show at 100 will contextualize the event with artifacts, historical documents, and archival photographs to evoke the social and intellectual currents of this time period. Major events of the era include the inauguration of Woodrow Wilson as president in 1913, women 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.

A scholarly publication will be produced in conjunction with the exhibition—the first major, in-depth survey in fifty years to study the significance, impact, and legacy of the 1913 Armory Show. A special Armory Show website (armory.nyhistory.org) features blog posts on curatorial discoveries and research, the layout of the 1913 Armory Show, and other interactive features.

“New York will explode into the modern world all over again when The Armory Show at 100 opens this fall at the New-York Historical Society,” said Louise Mirrer, President and CEO of New-York Historical. “Our galleries will be filled with masterworks and materials documenting the full impact that modernism delivered in 1913—the debates, discussions, and cultural shocks that made this show a ‘bombshell.’”

Exhibition Highlights
Curated by New-York Historical’s Marilyn Satin Kushner, Curator and Head, Department of Prints, Photographs, and Architectural Collections; and Kimberly Orcutt, Henry Luce Foundation Curator of American Art; with Casey Nelson Blake, Professor of History at Columbia University serving as Senior Historian, The Armory Show at 100 will feature approximately 100 masterworks from the 1913 Armory Show that powerfully impacted American audiences.

Duchamp’s Nude Descending a Staircase (No. 2) (1912) was considered scandalous and 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, even earlier, 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. Satirical works by Daumier, whose images commented upon the plight of poor French peasants in the mid-nineteenth century, also offered perspective on shocking works of the past.

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 and Matisse’s nudes, 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 under construction, before it became the world’s tallest building in 1913.

Publications & Public Programs
A fully-illustrated scholarly catalogue will be released in October 2013, re-examining the 1913 exhibition and its historical and cultural context. Edited by curators Marilyn S. Kushner and Kimberly Orcutt, along with Casey Nelson Blake, The Armory Show at 100: Modernism and Revolution (D Giles Limited, $79.95 hardcover) will feature thirty-one essays from a range of prominent scholars across diverse fields, shedding new light on the artists represented, the public reception of the works, and how the media responded to this legendary exhibition.

Public programs at New-York Historical will include a talk by exhibition curators Marilyn S. Kushner and Kimberly Orcutt on October 24, exploring how the 1913 Armory Show forever changed the way we understand art. On January 13, American Symphony Orchestra music director Leon Botstein, Whitney Museum of American Art curator Barbara Haskell, and Thirteen/WNET executive producer Susan Lacy (moderator) will discuss the effect of the Armory Show and the performance of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, both of which sent shockwaves around the world, in “Culture Shock: New York and Paris, 1913.”

New-York Historical also will present a number of educational programs, including scholarly symposia at New-York Historical (November 9, 2013) and at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris (December 6 and 7, 2013) that will explore the Armory Show’s influence on the relationship between American and European modernism, the impact of the event on United States history, and its place in a turbulent period in New York City history. Other educational activities will include “The Art of History” K-12 student workshops designed to embed art and history education in the NYC public school curriculum, teacher professional development sessions, and curriculum materials.

Support for The Armory Show at 100
The New-York Historical Society recognizes lead sponsors Harold J. and Ruth Newman for their exceptional commitment to The Armory Show at 100. Generous support has also been provided by Roger and Susan Hertog, the Terra Foundation for American Art, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Lily Auchincloss Foundation, Inc. and The Paul E. Singer Foundation. This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.

About the New-York Historical Society
The New-York Historical Society, one of America's pre-eminent cultural institutions, is dedicated to fostering research and presenting history and art exhibitions and public programs that reveal the dynamism of history and its influence on the world of today. Founded in 1804, New-York Historical has a mission to explore the richly layered history of New York City and State and the country, and to serve as a national forum for the discussion of issues surrounding the making and meaning of history.

New-York Historical is recognized for engaging the public with deeply researched and far-ranging exhibitions, such as WWII & NYC; Alexander Hamilton: The Man Who Made Modern America; Slavery in New York; Drawn by New York: Six Centuries of Watercolors and Drawings at the New-York Historical Society; Grant and Lee in War and Peace; Lincoln and New York; Nueva York (1613 – 1945); and Revolution! The Atlantic World Reborn. Supporting these exhibitions and related education programs is one of the world's greatest collections of historical artifacts, works of American art, and other materials documenting the history of the United States and New York.

Image: Overhead view of Armory installation, 1913. Walt Kuhn, Kuhn family papers, and Armory Show records, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution

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