Gallery owner and photographer, Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946), is often credited with
paving the way that allowed an avant-garde exhibition like the Armory Show to take
place in New York in 1913. He profoundly shaped the American art world and eventual
acceptance of Modern Art through his gallery, called the 291 Gallery, a pioneering
institution and one of the first galleries to exhibit early 20th Century European art.
Sensing that his newly-founded gallery was in need of innovative material, Stieglitz
arranged for the photographer Edward Steichen, acting as his Paris-based agent, to
locate and send over modern European paintings to exhibit at 291. In 1908, Stieglitz
opened the first exhibitions in America devoted to Auguste Rodin and Henri Matisse;
both shows were met with confusion, frustration and disdain by art critics and the
public. These were followed by a Paul Cézanne retrospective in 1910 and an early
show for Pablo Picasso in 1911. With these exhibitions, Stieglitz became the father of
modernism in America, not aiming to shock the American art world and the public
or to sensationalize the modern art of Europe, but to open a dialogue and introduce
America to the “new art” of his age.
A New York-based Modernist known for his abstract watercolors, John Marin (1870-
1953) was closely associated with Stieglitz. Their rapport began when Marin met
Stieglitz’s agent, Steichen, while they were both in Paris in 1908 (Marin had been in
Paris since 1905, making etchings very much in the style of James A. M. Whistler and
hoping to establish himself as a fine artist). Steichen directed Stieglitz’s attention to
Marin’s work, which prompted the gallery director to visit Marin’s Parisian apartment.
Stieglitz was extremely impressed and the following year, at 291 in New York, he held
an exhibition of Marin’s works. When Marin returned to the United States in 1911,
Stieglitz began supplying him with a yearly stipend that would support and
encourage his artistic output.
Even after 291 closed, Stieglitz continued to promote Marin’s work and ultimately
helped him attain critical acclaim. Marin’s first major retrospective was held at the
Daniel Gallery in New York in 1920. Stieglitz featured Marin’s work in the famous
“Seven Americans” exhibition at the Anderson Gallery, New York, and arranged
another retrospective for the artist at his new gallery, the Intimate Gallery, in
December 1925.
At the Armory Show, John Marin was one of only a handful of American artists
already actively engaged with modernist styles. Marin exhibited 10 works overall
(only 3 of which were for sale, each listed at $250 or around $3,000 today), including
a series of watercolors from 1912-13 of the Woolworth Building, New York, in varying
degrees of abstraction (lot 208). Marin’s display was one of the most discussed of
all the American Armory Show works; the satirical book created in the wake of the
exhibition,
The Cubies’ A B C
(New York, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1913), referenced Marin’s
series with its entry for the letter W: “W’s for Woolworth, the building so stable . . .
which Cubies paint writhing from cellar to gable.”
