Alfred Stieglitz and Gallery 291 :: Armory show Art essays

Alfred Stieglitz and Gallery 291A Modern Art Revolution Before the inventory ShowQuite a few years agothere got to bea place.The place grewthe place shiftedthe place was where this man was.Shiftis something that cannot be tiedcannot be pigeonholed.It jumpsit boundsit glidesit SHIFTSit must pull in freedom.It seems those who do that worth the doingare possessed of good eyesalive eyeswarm eyesit seems they radiate a fire at bottom outward.The places they inhabit have a light burninga light seen from near and far by those who need this lightand this light sometimes fatefulsometimes brilliantnever out.To realize such a placea very tangible place was and is this mans dream. rear Marin about Alfred Stieglitz1 On February 17, 1913 the International Exhibition of Modern Art, or the Armory Show, opened to the public. It is unlikely that the some 4,000 guests milling around the eighteen rooms of the 69th reg iment Armory in New York that night could have realized the extent to which the artwork displayed would set take away a revolution that would sweep the nation. Response to the Armory Show, however, was sensational. During the month long exhibition the, Armory Show became the talk of the town. The galleries were constantly full of people who came to gape at the spectacle, artists who came to study or deride, and celebrities and socialites who came to see and be seen. Former President Teddy Roosevelt even made a visit to the show praising the spirit of modernity present in the venture, but leery of the so called radical art of the European avant-garde. In his response to the show published in Outlook, Roosevelt commented It is vitally necessary to move forward and to shake off the dead hand of the reactionaries and yet we have to face the fact that there is apt to be a lunatic fringe among the votaries of any forward movement.2 In this statement Roosevelt summarized the public reactions to the show.