Armory Show, 100 Years of Avant-garde
This year, the Armory Show is celebrating its centenary. The first edition of the modern art fair was held from February 17 to March 15, 1913, in New York. It changed the American art scene in many ways by bringing artworks from around the world under one roof. Once called the “International Exhibition of Modern Art,” the event has gone down in history as “the Armory Show” since it changed names one year due to a temporary relocation to the 69th Regiment Armory on Lexington Avenue, between 25th and 26th street. Organized by the American Association of Painters and Sculptors, the show featured the work of modern European artists like Picasso, Gauguin, Cézanne and Duchamp, as well as American modernists like Robert Henri and Edward Hopper. Today the Armory Show is held on the banks of the Hudson River from Piers 92 to 94, and is considered as the very first rank of the avant-garde. Photography, with a large number of galleries exhibiting here, is undoubtedly an integral part of this cultural development. Visitors will be able to view and purchase classic prints as well as work by up-and-coming photographers. To celebrate its anniversary, the Armory Show set up a website tracing its own interesting history. Speaking of the Armory Show last year, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg declared: “The Art Show, Armory Show and all the fairs help underscore why the arts and our exceptional artists are so critical to our city every day of the year, and why we’ve made supporting the arts a top priority for our administration.” As in 1913, one hopes that art criticism still has a place at this year’s fair, not to mention the avant-garde. As one art dealer recently confided to the New York Observer: “The avant-garde now is about giving people wearing a $4,000 Prada suit what they want, discovering that guy who’s going to make a ton of money at an auction a year from now. Even the artists are market-driven. They see all their friends doing well, buying crap with all the money they make from dripping a little sweat on charcoal. So they end up wanting to take it to the source, that is, the Upper East Side, where the money is.” Does he have a point? Visitors to the Armory Show will be able to make up their own minds.
Jonas Cuénin
The Armory Show
March 7-10, 2013
711 12th Avenue
New York, NY 10019
USA
