PRESERVATION PHOTOCOPY: ORIGINAL MATERIAL RESTRICTED

FIRST ANNUAL REPORT

of the

SOCIETE ANONYME INC.

1920 - 1921

In the early spring of 1920, a lover of modern art approached the well-known French painter, Marcel Duchamp, to solicit his aid in the experiment of establishing, with the assistance of the American painter, Katherine S. Dreier, and such others as they would select, an international society whereby to promote a better understanding of modern art throughout the country, as well as in New York.

The aim of this modern lover of art was to organize a Society with a chain of galleries and reference libraries throughout the country. This Society was to issue pamphlets from time to time, and to eventually start a magazine to arouse in the art world throughout the United States a greater interest in the art which expresses this ever-changing era.

The Society was to be built on a sound sane basis of courage and vision. It was to show the development of art up to the present time, and was not to stop with the recognition of the art of

two hundred years ago or a little later. It was to be an organization which would always be ahead or abreast of the times. The immediate present was to be presented. The artists who express the past in one form or another are always the first to receive the applause of the public, thus holding back by the crowd of their audiences the new men of the future. It was because the vital modern movements in art were being pushed to the wall, that this lover of modern art felt the need of establishing a small art center, beginning in New York, that would act as a leaven in the art world of America.

Though the funds were only sufficient to make a demonstration, Marcel Duchamp, with the help of Katherine S. Dreier, Andrew R. McLaren, Man Ray and Joseph Stella, had the courage to incorporate this Museum of Modern Art as the Societe Anonyme. This Societe opened on the 30th of April, 1920, with exhibition rooms and a small Reference Library, at 19 East 47th Street. Here the serious works of serious men were shown and studied and left to act as the desired leaven in the art world of the community.

That these exhibitions, which were changed every six weeks,

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fulfilled their purpose of acting as a leaven, was seen by the re-
awakened interest in this community and its vicinity, towards modern
art. Not since 1913 has there been such a vital interest in the
new schools as was to be found during this season of 1920-1921.

The Societe Anonyme, Inc., however remained in the lead as
to the modern tendencies - all other efforts expressing rather the
art which immediately preceded these latest developments. It was
the Brooklyn Museum which first exhibited the modern Frenchmen from
Coubet and Manet down to Dauguin, Van Gogh, Cezanne, to Matisse and
Picasso. Next came the Metropolitan Museum, with its more complete
modern French group from Manet to Picasso; while the Philadelphia
Academy showed for the first time this year the young American men
of modern tendencies.

The Societe Anonyme Inc. was also the only one which
was truly international, exhibiting during the winter the works of
men representing nine different countries. It also met all the
expenses of transportation.

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The Societe Anonyme Inc. here presents to the public
its First Annual Report. Giving a full list of its exhibitions and
lectures and its list of publications; the catalogue of its Library,
its Constitution and By-Laws, Treasurer's Report, and two letters
which the Directors have selected from its numerous correspondence
to show the attitude of those who help to promote public opinion in
the matter of art here in America. The first letter is from
Raymond Wyer, Esq., Director of the Worcester Art Museum, and the
other from Mr. George C. Eglington, Editor of The International Studio,
the most widely read art magazine in this country.

Program of the Work for the Season
1921-1922

The Societe Anonyme Inc. will send on tour throughout the country the complete international collection of art which was exhibited at the Gallery, 19 East 47th Street, during the past season of 1920-1921. Through the courtesy of Raymond Wyer, Esq., the exhibition will open at the Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Mass. in November, 1921, and will proceed from there to other cities throughout the country.

The Library Committee will publish several books on modern art translated from both French and German, as well as small pamphlets giving various aspects of this subject.

The Gallery will be closed for the season of 1921-1922, but will reopen for the season of 1922-1923 with a big one-man show by Joseph Stella. Other important exhibitions for that season will include as heretofore international group exhibitions from France, Germany and Russia, as well as a one-man show of the paintings of Heinrich Campendonk, and the sculpture of John Storrs.

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Five pamphlets will be sent free during the winter of
1921-1922 to all $10 members, and three to all $5 members.

We hope that the report of the first year's work will
stimulate the interest of its members to greater effort of support.

Every member is earnestly requested to secure at least
one other member during the season of 1921-1922, to enable the
Societe Anonyme Inc. to better fulfil its purpose.

All communications should be addressed to the
Societe Anonyme Inc., 19 East 47th Street, New York.

EXHIBITIONS

The Societe Anonyme Inc. opened its Gallery at 19 East 47th Street on April 30th, 1920, with an international exhibition of modern art, beginning with the Post-Impressionist School, which demonstrated the policy it wished to follow. Sixteen pictures were exhibited at one time because of the limited space of its present Gallery, which entitled each picture to a proper wall space, with no overcrowding.

Until the Societe Anonyme is in a position to have more rooms, it will only exhibit the completed works of an artist, to help clarify the mental atmosphere which befogs the modern paintings, due chiefly to the many sketches and half completed works which have been exhibited from time to time in New York as representing this period.

The Societe Anonyme takes its starting point from the Post-Impressionists up to the present time, exhibiting the works of "those men imbued with the Stoics' definition of art, which is to create and beget, and with the spirit of John Ruskin, when he says "Invent or perish", the men who represent the living age - the present not the past - who are searching to express the dynamic forces inherent in life, which we call the new approach towards art." (Lecture on

["PRESERVATION PHOTOCOPY: ORIGINAL MATERIAL RESTRICTED", "-4-", "Dadaists", "Picabia - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -