ARTH 12A Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Marcel Duchamp, George Bellows, John French Sloan
14 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
May 14, 2018
“Armory Show” Notes
Reactions/Questions
•
Armory Show 1913 & Independents’ Show 1917
• No real tradition of nude in art
• Separate viewing hours for men & women → leading to conservative
American artists
• “The Eight” in 1908 = exhibit of American artists including Robert Henri
• Sixth Avenue and Thirtieth Street by Robert Henri, 1907
o Well of people
o Elevated train = new modern thing, NY subway system
o Woman in white dress looks out of place, everyone else is wearing
fancier clothes
o Woman is alcoholic and tin bucket with lid was beer → bucket that
audiences at time would recognized
▪ Men and women are watching her and judging her
o 13th street was where women prostitutes hung out
o Women with red feather in hat = symbol of women prostitutes
o Neighborhood associated with immigrants but Americans saw it as
inappropriate b/c of subject matter
• Men of the Dock by George Bellows, 1912
o Focused on city modernization, mostly work done by “The Eight”
o Lower class laborers/immigrants usually worked at docks
o Orange strip on ship directs eye to modern city and built in
background of picture
o Not everyone approved of picture b/c thought it was an ugly
modernization or that lower class people weren’t worth a painting →
Americans thought this art was “edgy”
• Armory Show
o Organized by American artists to educate public
o American audiences get 19th Century modernism all at once
o American artists find themselves “behind” European artists
• Women Drying their Hair by John Sloan, 1912
o Lower class women blow-drying hair at top of building
• Armory Show happens b/c of steady flow of American artists going to
European art but Americans have to come back to US b/c of WWI and
realized that there’s no art for Vigard art → decided to put on exhibition to
educate audience about new art
o About 1200 works of art
o 2/3 of paintings are American art
o Class barrier b/c need to pay to enter show
o Very first blockbuster show
o Big impact b/c of large amount of people who saw it
o Artists decided to host show without judges → completely ran by
artists
o Duchamp is secretary of organization and fills out card for Richard
Mutt (chooses a term that’s a hybrid of dogs, also store near show
called Mott’s Plumbing)
• Nude Descending a Staircase by Marcel Duchamp, 1912
o Had an education so can actually draw
o Kind of lost futuristic – attempt to capture motion
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
