SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO.- Organized by the American Federation of Arts (AFA), a leading arts organization and originator of acclaimed traveling art exhibitions, Debating American Modernism: Stieglitz, Duchamp, and the New York Avant-Garde examines the debate between the artists of the Alfred Stieglitz and Marcel Duchamp circles that explored the nature of American art and profoundly influenced American Modernism. The exhibition opens at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and will be on view from January 24–April 19, 2003, followed by a tour to the Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, Iowa, May 10–August 3, 2003, and the Terra Museum of American Art in Chicago, Illinois, August 29–November 30, 2003.
Curated by Debra Bricker Balken, Debating American Modernism examines the dialogue between the works of artists in these circles and proposes a new reading of American Modernism. It features paintings, sculpture, photographs, watercolors, drawings, prints, and film.
This exhibition is a project of ART ACCESS II, a program of the AFA funded with major support from the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund. Additional support is provided by the National Patrons of the AFA.
From 1915 to 1929, American Modernist art underwent a profound process of redefinition. Alfred Stieglitz and the artists whose works were shown at his ‘291’ gallery in New York had relied, in part, upon the latest aesthetic inventions and theories spawned in Europe to direct their work. This situation dramatically changed around 1915 with the arrival of a number of artists in New York—first and foremost the French artist Marcel Duchamp.
Drawing on articles and documents from this historic period, the exhibition and its accompanying catalogue examine the controversy generated by Duchamp’s reaction to the state of American art. In 1915, disappointed by works presenting predominantly nature-based abstraction, Duchamp proclaimed in newspapers and magazines that American artists were too dependent on outmoded European traditions and had overlooked far greater subjects: the skyscraper and the machine. Duchamp’s comments spawned a critical discussion that lasted through 1929, prompting Stieglitz and his circle to rethink what made their work innovative and American.
The exhibition also addresses the appearance of sexualized imagery in nearly all work created during this remarkable period, a phenomenon that provides evidence of common ground between the two seemingly opposed camps. It traces the many corollaries between these works of art and Sigmund Freud’s theories of sexuality, which found broader reception in the U.S. during this period than anywhere else in the world.
For this exhibition, Ms. Balken has selected approximately 75 paintings, sculptures, photographs, and works on paper by the following artists: John Covert, Jean Crotti, Stuart Davis, Charles Demuth, Arthur Dove, Marcel Duchamp, Albert Gleizes, Marsden Hartley, Man Ray, John Marin, Georgia O’Keeffe, Francis Picabia, Morton Schamberg, Charles Sheeler, Joseph Stella, Florine Stettheimer, Alfred Stieglitz, John Storrs, Paul Strand, Max Weber, Beatrice Wood, and Marius de Zayas.
Highlights of the show include Marcel Duchamp’s readymade, Fountain, 1917 (1964 version); In Advance of the Broken Arm, 1915 (1964 version); and Hat Rock, 1917 (1964 version). In addition to six prints from Stieglitz’s Equivalents photographic series, the show also includes his photograph of Duchamp’s original Fountain from 1917. Other key works are Georgia O’Keeffe’s Blue Line, 1919 and From the Lake No. 1, 1924; Arthur Dove’s Fog Horns, 1929; Marsden Hartley’s Portrait, ca.1914–15; Max Weber’s Rush Hour, New York, 1915; Morton Schamberg’s Painting VIII (Mechanical Abstraction), 1916; Charles Demuth’s Lancaster, 1921; and John Marin’s Telephone Building, Lower New York, 1926.
The exhibition is organized in three thematic sections. The first presents the work of Stieglitz and his circle, which represents the development of organic abstraction in the United States. Included are a grouping of works from Stieglitz’s celebrated Equivalent series, his photographic studies of clouds and the sky; a selection of Arthur Dove’s abstracted landscapes; and sensuous oil paintings of natural phenomena by Georgia O’Keeffe. The second section includes a selection of Duchamp’s readymades, works by Francis Picabia, Marius de Zayas, and Man Ray. The third segment presents work by a group of young artists active during the 1920’s, which seemingly synthesizes the two earlier opposing forces—Charles Demuth, Charles Sheeler, John Storrs, and Stuart Davis.
A fully illustrated exhibition catalogue, published by the AFA in association with Distributed Art Publishers Inc., accompanies the exhibition. It features an essay by Ms. Balken that traces the threads of the public debate throughout the teens and twenties, and another by Jay Bochner, professor of English at the University of Montreal, that discusses materials written on the work of Stieglitz, Duchamp and the artists in their circles.
Additional materials created and published by the AFA in conjunction with the exhibition include an illustrated brochure and chronology, promotional materials, a student guide and suggested activities for the classroom, as well as a special link that will provide background information to complement the exhibition on the AFA’s web site, www.afaweb.org.
