Documents of the 1913 Armory Show: The Electrifying Moment of Modern Art's American Debut
Kenyon Cox (1856-1919) was an American painter, writer and teacher. His work is held in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. He is the author of several books--including "Old Masters and New" and "Concerning Painting: Considerations Theoretical and Historical"--and criticism appearing in The Nation, Century and Scribner's magazines.Arthur B. Davies (1863-1928) was an American artist, with works in the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. He also served as President for the Association for American Painters and Sculptors, overseeing the International Exhibition of Modern Art (The Armory Show) in 1913.Ã‰lie Faure (1873-1937) was a French art historian. Originally trained as a surgeon, Faure was a self-taught art historian and a popular author. His "Histoire de l'art" (first translated by Walter Pach) was a critical and popular hit, and one of the first histories of art to look at artâ€™s place in, and relation to, civilization more broadly. Faureâ€™s other writings include, works on AndrÃ© Derain and Chaim Soutine.Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) was a French painter, though starting with four years spent in Peru when he was a child, and a stint in the marines as a young man, Gauguin traveled throughout his life. In his painting and with the publication of his journal, "Noa-Noa", it was his travel to Tahiti that remains his best known influence. Though originally employed as a stockbroker, Gauguin's work now resides in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Art Institute of Chicago and other museums around the world.Frederick James Gregg (d. 1928) was a writer and art critic for the New York Evening Sun. Friendly with artists in the Ashcan School, which included John Sloan and Arthur B. Davies, Gregg later acted as the public relations director for the Association of American Painters and Sculptors and the 1913 Armory Show.Walt Kuhn (1877-1949) was an American painter and illustrator, born in Brooklyn, and one of the principle organizers of the 1913 Armory Show. Active in several artist clubs, he was also an instructor at the Art Students League of New York. Though perhaps best remembered for his critical role in the Armory Show, Kuhn's art can be found in the collections of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the National Gallery of Art, and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.Frank Jewett Mather, Jr. (1868-1953) was an American art critic and professor. He was a frequent contributor to New York's Evening Post, The Nation, and Burlington Magazine. His books include "Art in America", "Estimates in Art", and "Concerning Beauty". He was a professor at Williams College and Princeton University. The College Art Association honors Mather with an annual award in his name, given to a writer for distinguished art criticism.Walter Pach (1883-1958) was an artist, art critic and historian and author. A translator and influential adviser on European modern art, Pach helped organize exhibitions and artist groups, as well as purchase work for both private and public collections. His many publications include "The Masters of Modern Art", a translation of "The Journals of Eugene Delacroix", "Queer Thing, Painting: Forty Years in the World of Art", "An Hour of Art and Ananias, or The False Artist".Francis Picabia (1879-1953) was a French artist and poet associated with the early Cubist, Dada and Surrealist movements. His art works appear in the collections of The Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. A volume of his writing was recently published by MIT Press: "I Am a Beautiful Monster: Poetry, Prose, and Provocation".Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) was President of the United States of America from 1901-1909. During his administration he tightened industrial regulations, increased federal focus on conservation, and expanded America's global presence militarily and diplomatically. Though Roosevelt remains known as a soldier and an explorer, he was also an editor for The Outlook magazine (following his presidency) and the author of more than a dozen books on the military, the environment, and the American West.Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter, now represented in nearly every major collection of modern art throughout the world, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Hermitage Museum, the MusÃ©e d'Orsay and the Rijksmuseum. Van Gogh also wrote prolifically, especially to his brother Theodore, and today, those letters remain an important body of work in the history of art.