The International Exhibition of Modern Art presented by the Association
of American Painters and Sculptors, opened on February 15th, 1913, at
the 69th Regiment Armory on 25th street and Lexington Avenue in New
York, exhibiting “American & Foreign Art” (see lot 140). Today we know
this exhibition simply as the Armory Show, certainly the most important
event in the history of early modern American Art.
In just over a year, more than 1,300 works of art from over 300 artists were
accumulated to represent some of the most advanced and
au courant
European artistic movements (as well as the perceived “pre-modern”
movements that formed the foundation for the then contemporary styles)
alongside modern American art, for the education and experience of the
American art community as well as the broader public. American art
would never again be the same after the watershed Armory Show.
Nevertheless the handful of men who founded the exhibition, and
therefore are responsible for such a massive artistic shift, are scarcely
known today.
On December 14, 1911, while discussing the difficulties of exhibiting in
New York, artists Walt Kuhn (lots 168-17), Elmer MacRae, Henry Fitch
Taylor and Jerome Myers (lot 164) first recorded in their AAPS meeting
minutes their desire to form a society to plan what would become the
Armory Show. They recruited 16 additional charter members to join their
new society, fellow artists who were like-minded and essentially anti-
Academy, as the main obstacle to exhibiting in New York was the
exclusive nature of the National Academy of Design. The short history
of successful dissident exhibitions in America, beginning with The Eight
in 1908, stemmed mainly from the Academy’s exclusivity and propensity
for antiquated Victorian and genre styles, viewed by the AAPS founders
as disparate from the contemporary art scene and the social climate in
America around the early 1900s.
Arthur B. Davies (lots 172-174), known as “the chief” or Mr. Davies, a
central character in the planning of the Armory Show, was chosen to be
the president of the AAPS for his financial and social connections (over
Robert Henri, the two would later disagree about Davies’ vision). At the
time, the aloof, successful, respected and charismatic Davies stepped
valiantly into a leadership role. He was instrumental is securing the 69th
Regiment Armory for a fee of $5,000 (around $120,000 today),
astronomical at the time, and he found the necessary funding from many
sponsors unknown to his fellow AAPS artists. Davies was also a major
proponent of recruiting and promoting the most radical European art at
the time, no matter the reaction from the American artists or public.
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