History, Natural History & the Arts
Despite actively participating in art history, female artists tended to act in the shadow of their male contemporaries.
For well into the twentieth century, they were excluded from art schools, galleries and museums. Therefore, few platforms for the exhibition of their work were available. [Read more…] about An Experimental Museum: Dreier & Duchamp in Manhattan
Founded by Morris, Gustavus and Gotthelf Pach, the photographic studio of Pach Brothers emerged in the wake of the Civil War. The family had moved from Berlin to the City of New York when the boys were young.
Sharing an interest in the emerging process of photography, they roamed the streets of their local neighborhood taking pictures of scenes and residents. The New York directory of 1866/7 lists the Pach Brothers working at 260 Bowery. A decade later they were operating from a studio on Broadway. [Read more…] about The Urinal Controversy: Walter Pach & Marcel Duchamp’s ‘Fountain’
The first annual exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists opened at Manhattan’s Grand Central Palace on the evening of April 10, 1917. Thousands of guests gathered to celebrate what was to be the largest art show ever held in New York. The momentous occasion took place in an atmosphere of growing political tension as it coincided with America’s entry into the First World War.
In spite of these circumstances, there was a single figure who attracted widespread attention. Known by his adopted name of Arthur Cravan, he had been invited to deliver a lecture on “The Independent Artists in France and America.” His outrageous behavior shocked New York’s artistic elite. [Read more…] about Poet-Boxer Arthur Cravan: The Man Who Shocked Greenwich Village
Manhattan’s 57th Street, the world’s “most expensive” street, was laid out and opened in 1857 as the city of New York expanded northward.
With the Hudson and East Rivers on either end, the area was until then largely uninhabited and clustered with small factories and workshops. As late as the 1860s, the area east of Central Park was a shantytown with up to 5,000 squatters.
Half a century later it was Manhattan’s cultural heart and an intercontinental meeting place of artists, collectors and dealers. [Read more…] about Manhattan’s Great Art Dealers: Some History
Contrary to conventional wisdom, the very first modern traveling art exhibition was not the three-venue, 1913 New York City “Armory Show.” Instead, and a decade earlier, Syracuse and Rochester, New York hosted an important art exhibit.
The novelty of a traveling art exhibition in 1903 is matched by the surprising reason it occurred: a furniture maker’s business deal with an educational institution. [Read more…] about Traveling Art: Gustav Stickley’s 1903 Exhibitions
The late 1920s and 1930s were crucial years in New York’s rise as an international artistic center. Cultural contacts between Europe and the United States multiplied. American artists who had studied in Paris returned with fresh ambitions; dollar rich patrons were willing to finance new initiatives; the First World War had unsettled European artists and gallerists, many of whom settled in New York. They were joined by others who fled the Nazi threat. Manhattan was turning into a Mecca of modernism where a multi-national cohort of artists, dealers and investors mixed and mingled.
By our standards the art world was relatively small. At any one time in that epoch, there were probably fewer than fifteen galleries active in New York with only a handful concentrating on contemporary art. A pioneering role was played by Alfred Stieglitz’s 291 Gallery on Fifth Avenue. Operational since 1905, the gallery introduced the Parisian avant-garde to an American audience. In modernist Manhattan, Stieglitz was the Godfather. [Read more…] about Julien Levy & Art at the Heart of Manhattan
In 1906 Milan hosted the World Exhibition which, significantly, focused on the theme of transportation. The occasion for the exhibition was the inauguration of the spectacular Simplon Tunnel, connecting Milan to Europe’s major cities.
The opening up of commercial and cultural connections unleashed a burst of buoyancy. Milan became associated with the first aesthetic movement to praise the potential of the modern metropolis. [Read more…] about The Cult of Technology: Futurism in New York
Early modern capitalism invented outdoor commercial advertising. Urban walls became prime spaces of communication; posters underpinned an emerging commodity culture. Modernist expression took hold of the street and Edward McKnight Kauffer stood in the forefront of developments. [Read more…] about Edward McKnight Kauffer: The Artist As Wanderer
Equestrian artist Philip Astley was a pioneering entertainment entrepreneur. His demonstrations of trick horse-riding at London’s Royal Amphitheatre in 1768 constitute the origins of modern circus.
Astley performed his routine in a circular arena which would subsequently be referred to as the ring. He interspersed his displays with a variety of additional acts. Both in Europe and America other producers copied and expanded his new style of entertainment. [Read more…] about Circus Artists and the Flying Trapeze Metaphor
The year was 1911, a new decade had just started. In spite of sharp social divisions and mass immigration, New York was bustling. The scientific revolution was making an impact, radically altering the nineteenth century vision of the world.
New technology changed the face of the metropolis. The Woolworth Building had been completed, making it the tallest building in town. Electric trains pulled out of the Grand Central Terminal; in the streets horse-drawn carriages were being replaced by automobiles.
It was a period of unbridled patriotism; a golden age for producers of flags and buntings (in April 1908 Emma Goldman had given her fiery San Francisco lecture on the ‘menace’ of patriotism).
New York was waking-up and starting to fulfill its potential. It was a place of new developments and initiatives. Modern was the buzzword. That year a group of artists came together aiming to organize a grand exhibition that would reflect this new confidence. [Read more…] about The Armory Show: An Arsenal of Creative Freedom
In the early 1970s, American artists Edward Kienholz and Nancy Reddin Kienholz began work on The Caddy Court, a 1966 Dodge van between the front and back ends of a 1978 Cadillac, which reimagines the Supreme Court of the United States in one of its original functions as a “riding circuit” court. [Read more…] about ‘The Caddy Court’ Coming To The Armory Show
Lions, toucans, dolphins, dogs, cocks, — critters galore tread the echoing halls of the Park Avenue Armory in this year’s annual Spring Show, NYC of Art and Antiques.
Made of glass, paint, leather, rosewood, bronze, silver and precious jewels these fanciful creatures are testimony to the enduring pleasures of the animal kingdom as a theme in art and design. And since the ASPCA is the sponsor and even beneficiary of a portion of some sales at this year’s event, tracking the artistic fauna forges a trail through the riches of an extravagant spring ritual. [Read more…] about Animal Fancy At The Armory Spring Show, NY
Use your bank’s “bill pay” option (or just send a check)
Thanks for your support! These are difficult times. Without your support we cannot publish the Almanack.
*Donations are not tax deductible.
(Click the X in the top right corner this box to not see this message again for 7 days).