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Performing the New Face of Modernism: Anti-Mimetic Portraiture and the American Avant-Garde, 1912–1927

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Performing the New Face of Modernism: Anti-Mimetic Portraiture and the American Avant-Garde, 1912–1927 ABSTRACT Title of Document: PERFORMING THE NEW FACE OF MODERNISM: ANTI-MIMETIC PORTRAITURE AND THE AMERICAN AVANT-GARDE, 1912–1927 Jonathan Frederick Walz, Doctor of Philosophy, 2010 Directed By: Dr. Sally M. Promey Department of Art History and Archaeology At the Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession in 1912, Alfred Stieglitz received the final proofs for Gertrude Stein’s experimental text portraits “Henri Matisse” and “Pablo Picasso” and subsequently published these poems in the journal Camera Work . Soon afterward a number of visual artists working in the United States began grappling with the implications of such hermetic depictions. Entering into a trans-Atlantic conversation, this fledgling modernist community created radical images that bear witness to the evolving nature of subjectivity and to an extensive culture of experimentation in portraying the individual in the first quarter of the twentieth century. One of the most salient aspects of the modernist worldview was the desire to break with the past. Earlier styles, exhibition standards, subject matter, and teaching methods all came under attack, but none more basic—and symbolic—than the ancient Greek (via the Renaissance) idea of mimesis. Freed from the expectation to replicate reality “impartially,” painters and sculptors began instead to emphasize more and more their own subjective experiences through expressive color choices or formal exaggerations. Portraiture, previously so closely linked to flattering transcription and bourgeois values, became the genre par excellence for testing modernist ideals and practices. This doctoral thesis examines the small group of artists working in the United States who advanced an extreme, anti-mimetic approach to portraiture through the dissociation of the sitter from his or her likeness. Drawing on performance theory, this dissertation re-imagines the portrait as a series of events within a social nexus. It also aims to reaffirm the agency of the United States avant-garde in the 1910s and 1920s as its members sought to establish, and then maintain, their status on the American cultural scene specifically through the employment of unconventional portraiture. Through the contextualization of particular objects, the consideration of period poetry, and the incorporation of newly available archival sources, the research presented here illuminates the complex intersections of modernity, representation, and subjectivity, and charts the changes in a specific mode of visual production during the fifteen-year span of 1912–1927, thereby demonstrating Charles Demuth’s dictum that “In portraiture…likeness is a means not an end.” PERFORMING THE NEW FACE OF MODERNISM: ANTI-MIMETIC PORTRAITURE AND THE AMERICAN AVANT-GARDE, 1912–1927 By Jonathan Frederick Walz Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2010 Advisory Committee: Dr. Sally M. Promey, Chair Dr. Anne Collins Goodyear Dr. June E. Hargrove Dr. Marilee Lindemann Dr. Marjorie S. Venit © Copyright by Jonathan Frederick Walz 2010 ii DEDICATION To my parents, Prudence Mae Walz and A. Frederick Walz, Jr. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Although the creation of this document entailed numerous and long work hours in solitude, many individuals and institutions played a role in its inception, research, development, and completion. I am pleased to have the opportunity to acknowledge them here. Dr. Sally M. Promey, my advisor, recognized early on the value of this project and has championed it in many contexts and to many colleagues. She munificently imparted support and suggestions at critical junctures. Her incisive scholarship remains the paragon to which I aspire. I owe her a great debt. I would also like to thank the other members of my dissertation committee—Dr. Anne Collins Goodyear, Dr. June E. Hargrove, Dr. Marilee Lindemann, and Dr. Marjorie S. Venit—for their own interactions with this text and their subsequent helpful comments and suggestions. This doctoral thesis—and the book it will become—are the better for it. This project benefited immensely from several fellowship awards that facilitated the study, reflection, and writing necessary for its production. A 2007 Henry Luce Foundation Dissertation Research Award enabled me to explore the rich modernist resources at Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, including the Alfred Stieglitz/Georgia O’Keeffe Archive (and specifically their correspondence with each other, which had recently been declassified). A year-long Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Research Center residential fellowship facilitated my research on modernism and portraiture, particularly on the Southwest artists Andrew Dasburg, Marsden Hartley, and Georgia O’Keeffe. I am grateful to the museum’s staff—especially the curatorial & iv collections team of Barbara Buhler Lynes, Heather Hole, Eumie Imm Stroukoff, Dale Kronkright, Judy Chiba Smith, Kelly Swickard, Monica Chevalier Schofield, Darrah Wills, and Alan C. Braddock—for their demonstrable interest in this project. In addition, the 2007–2008 Fellows hold a special place in my heart, not only for their intelligence and generosity but also for their friendship. I could not have asked for better associates than Elizabeth Hutton Turner, Jonathan Weinberg, Carolyn Kastner, Elizabeth “Libby” Bischof, and Christopher “James James” Reed. A 2008–2009 Smithsonian Institution Pre-Doctoral Fellowship at the National Portrait Gallery made possible the consultation of many relevant works of art and other documents, as well as the time and space to draft two-thirds of the present manuscript. Wendy Wick Reaves and Anne Collins Goodyear have proved steadfast colleagues and their knowledge on the topics of portraiture and American modernism remains invaluable. I am especially indebted to Anne, whose perspicacity, encouragement, and good cheer played a decisive role in shaping this dissertation into its final form. I thank Amelia Goerlitz and Cynthia Mills for the myriad ways that they made my year in residence a productive experience. My fellow Fellows—including Makeda Best, Sarah Carter, Thomas Folland, Ellery Foutch, Joanna Frang, Jason Goldman, Jamie Jones, Crawford Alexander Mann III, Holly Markovitz, Leo Mazow, Nancy Palm, Stephen Phillips, Letha Clair Robertson, Janneken Smucker, Jeannine Tang, Robin Veder, Annemarie Voss, Miranda Wallace, Francine Weiss, and Mary Beth Zundo—offered, at turns, constructive criticism and camaraderie. For their dear friendship, both professional and personal, which enlarged my thinking and, as a result, enriched this dissertation, I am v deeply obliged to Melissa “Cubi” Warak, Valerie Hellstein, and Jason LaFountain. Thank you. A 2009–2010 University of Maryland College of Arts & Humanities Mary Savage Snouffer Dissertation Fellowship permitted me to finish drafting, continue researching, and begin revising this doctoral thesis. I am grateful to Dr. Meredith Gill for her masterful coordination of my application and to Associate Dean Elizabeth Loizeaux for her benediction upon receipt of the award. The staff of numerous institutions—among them, the Archives of American Art; Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University; Center for Southwest Research, University of New Mexico; College of Santa Fe Libraries; Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center; Gerald Peters Gallery; Georgia O’Keeffe Museum; The Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum; National Gallery of Art, Washington; National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; New Mexico Museum of Art; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Roswell Museum and Art Center; Santa Fe Public Library; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Smithsonian Institution; and the University of Maryland Libraries— facilitated the advancement of this project in a multitude of ways and I am grateful to them for their patient assistance. Fulfilling my University of Maryland Department of Art History & Archaeology coursework requirements in the company of such emerging scholars as Sarah Cantor, Dena Crosson, Angela George, Adam Greenhalgh, Asma Naeem, Laura Groves Napolitano, Jorgelina Orfila, Brooke Rosenblatt, Adam Rudolphi, Flora Vilches, Juliet Wiersema, and Hannah Wong meant that during my matriculation I have learned as much about art history as I have about life. The collegiality of Americanist classmates Joy vi Heyrman, Jason LaFountain, Guy Jordan, Nathan Rees, and Bryan J. Zygmont remains a constant source of sympathetic inspiration and intellectual stimulation. Finally, my conversations—formal and informal—with many associates (from the art world and otherwise) provided much needed nuance and texture to my thinking about anti-mimetic portraiture and thus to my writing on the topic. For their contributions, however great or small, I would like to thank Allan Antlif, Heidi Applegate, Bill Arning, Claire M. Barry, Betsy Boone, Charles Brock, Judith Brodie, Kathleen Campagnolo, Christopher Castiglia, Wanda Corn, Sergio Cortesini, Robert Cozzolino, Dorinda Evans, Betsy Fahlman, Robin Jaffee Frank, Sarah Greenough, Henry “Quint” Gregory, Frank Goodyear, Evelyn Hankins, Barbara Haskell, Agnieszka Kedzierska-Manzon, Sarah Kennell, James McManus, Catherine Metzger, Francis Naumann, Susan Power, Estevan Rael-Gálvez, Lace Jane Roberts, Timothy Rodgers, Kerry Roeder, Lauree Sails, Merry Scully, Jenn Sichel, James Smalls, Kelly Swickard, Lonn Taylor, Aurélie Verdier, Judy Walsh, Catherine Whitney, Matthew Witkovsky, Hannah Wong, and Barbara
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