Documents of the 1913 Armory Show: The Electrifying Moment of Modern Art's American Debut

Collected here are the original publications from one of the most important exhibitions in the history of American art -- the 1913 Armory Show. Opening on February 17, 1913, in New York and traveling to Chicago and Boston, the Armory Show was meant to be a simple exhibition of the new abstract and cubist art coming out of Europe. What it ultimately became was a sprawling showcase of some of the most ground-breaking (and many said subversive) art America had ever seen. Sensational to crowds, controversial among critics, and inspirational for artists, the Armory Show radically changed the face of art in America. Here you'll find excerpts from Paul Gauguin's provocative Tahitian journal, Élie Faure's enthralling essay on Cézanne, a range of impassioned views both for and against the new art, and president Theodore Roosevelt's famous essay, "A Layman's Views of an Art Exhibition". Long out of print, these writings (which were first published in pamphlets and sold at the exhibition itself) reintroduce readers to artists and ideas as powerful today as they were nearly a century ago.