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The Making of Americans

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The Making of Americans I have no desire to disparage American art, which is a child, and therefore merits being loved and protected.Ê – Andre Villebeuf in Gringorie, Paris Ê 01/14 Those who have been to the United States bring back nothing from visiting American museums but memories of Italian and French works found there. Ê – Lucie Mazauric in Vendredi, Paris Ê Critic Clement Greenberg tells the story of Walter Benjamin American avant-garde art in the years since World War II – a time when New York school painting and vital sculpture made Western The Making of Europe turn at last to the United States for Americans inspiration. Ê – Subhead of the article “America Takes the Lead: 1945–1965” by Clement Greenberg, Art in America, August–September 1965 When the first comprehensive exhibition of American art abroad, titled “Trois Siecles d’Art aux États-Unis” and organized by the Museum of Modern Art, opened at the Musée de Jeu de Paume in 1939, many Parisians were surprised to find out that there was such a thing as “American art.” Similarly, many well-intentioned art critics at the time expressed sympathy for the youthful attempts of American painters to emulate their French colleagues. Only a quarter of a century n later, a leading American art critic felt confident i m enough to declare that it was now time for a j n Europeans to look to Americans for inspiration. e B r ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊThere are probably different ways to explain e t l the dramatic rise of American art, which became a W Ê apparent to Europeans a bit earlier than to 3 1 Americans. While in 1958 the New York Times 0 2 r published the timid headline “New World e b Prepares to Show Its Cultural Achievements to o s t n c a Old World,” the London Horizon, fully aware of the o c i r — change that was taking place, had a bolder take: e 8 m 4 “The New American Painting Captures Europe.” A # f l o ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊOne possible approach to telling this story a n g r n would be to trace what could be called the i u k o j a “American interpretation of European modern x M u l e f art” through various exhibitions and collections h - e T organized by American curators and art lovers. The earliest and most influential collection was the one assembled by Gertrude and Leo Stein in Paris, exhibited on the walls of their salon in the beginning of the twentieth century. ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊThis was perhaps the first time (around 1905) that paintings by Cezanne, Matisse, and Picasso were exhibited together. Not only the Steins’s Parisian friends, but also many of their 11.12.13 / 19:32:41 EST 02/14 London Horizon magazine, London, 1958. 11.12.13 / 19:32:41 EST “Armory Show,” exhibition catalog, New York 1913 Gertrude Stein, Paris, c.1910 11.12.13 / 19:32:41 EST art-loving compatriots from America visited the themselves concerning the work of Europeans salon, saw the collection, and spread the word who are creating a new art.” about it back home. One of them, Alfred Stieglitz, ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊThe impact of the Armory Show on the was the first to exhibit the works of Cezanne and American art scene was huge. Its ripple effects Matisse in New York, at his Gallery 291 in 1910. would be felt for decades to come. Many Then a couple of years later, the Steins lent their European works on display at the show were Blue Nude by Matisse to the Armory Show. acquired by local collectors and thus continued ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊThe Armory Show – officially titled the 04/14 to have an impact on the American art scene International Exhibition of Modern Art – after the show closed. One of the most important representedÊanother early encounter between collections of modern art on either side of the Americans and European modern art. This was Atlantic – that of Walter and Louise Arensberg – more spectacular than any previous encounter, was initiated by the Armory Show. The since it was held on domestic soil and reached a Arensbergs’s apartment became a gathering broader audience. It was organized and curated place for emerging New York “art internationale” by the members of the Association of American artists, including Marcel Duchamp, whose Nude Painters and Sculptors, whose intention was to Descending a Staircase (No. 2) became the “[give] the public here the opportunity to see for emblem of the avant-garde. It was Duchamp, themselves the results of new influences at work together with Katherine Dreier, an artist and in other countries in an art way.” They further collector who also participated in the Armory stated that Show, who “had the courage to incorporate this Museum of Modern Art as the Société Anonyme.” The foreign paintings and sculptures here A report issued by the Société regarding its shown are regarded by the committee of exhibition schedule of 1920–21 emphasized that the Association as expressive of the forces “The Société Anonyme, Inc., was also the only which have been at work abroad of late, [American art venue] which was truly forces which cannot be ignored because international, exhibiting during the winter the they have had results. The American artists works of men representing ten different responsible for bringing the works of countries.” In addition to the nationality of the foreigners to this country consider the artist, the following “Schools of Modern Art” exhibition as of equal importance for were also listed in the report: Post- themselves as for the lay public. The less Impressionist, Pre-Cubist, Cubist, Expressionist, they find their work showing signs of the Simultaneist, Futurist, Dadaist, and “Those developments indicated in the Europeans, Belonging to No Schools, But Imbued with the the more reason they will have to consider New Spirit in Art.” whether or not painters or sculptors here ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊThirteen years after the Armory Show, the have fallen behind through escaping the n Société Anonyme assembled the second i incidence through distance and for other m International Exhibition of Modern Art, this time a j reasons of the forces that have manifested n at the Brooklyn Museum. In the exhibition e B themselves on the other side of the r catalogue, the artists were grouped by their e t Atlantic. l nationality, representing twenty countries a W Ê including the US. For some of the artists, it was 3 Since the members of the Association clearly felt 1 perhaps their first time exhibiting in America: 0 2 that Americans lagged behind recent r Arp, Max Ernst, Léger, Schwitters, Mondrian, e developments in Europe, they wanted to shake b Moholy-Nagy, de Chirico, Klee, Lissitzky, Miro, o s t n c up the domestic scene by bringing to New York a and Man Ray. (Malevich was shown in the Société o c i r the most avant-garde works available. The — Anonyme’s “Modern Art” collection at the e 8 m subtitle of the exhibition – “American & Foreign 4 Sesqui-Centenial International Exhibition, held A # f l Art” – was displayed in the exhibition hall but did o in Philadelphia in 1926). In a press release for the a n g r not appear on the cover of the catalogue. n Brooklyn Museum show, the Société Anonyme i u k o j Furthermore, in the catalogue the artists were a was described as x M u l e not listed according to their nationality, as was f h - customary at the time, but only by their names. e T an international organization for the Thus, on two facing pages one found Braque, promotion of the study of the experimental Kirchner, Kandinsky, Cezanne, Hartley, Duchamp, in art for students in America [that] renders and Munch listed together. At the opening aid to conserve the vigor and vitality of the speech of the Armory Show, John Quinn, a new expression of beauty in the art of today member of the Association and a prominent É When one considers that the gathering collector of modern art, stated that “the together of all these works has been done Association felt that it was time the American out of love, one realizes the vigor and people had an opportunity to see and judge for vitality of the Modern art Movement. 11.12.13 / 19:32:41 EST supplemented by the National Galerie in This exhibition and the activities of the Société the Kronprinzen Palast. Here Picasso, Anonime represented one of the most important Derain, Matisse rub shoulders with Klee, developments in the New York art scene of the Nolde, Dix, Feininger, and the best of the 1920s, especially in introducing the latest modern Germans É Paradoxically New European avant-garde art to American artists, York, if fully awakened, would be able in a art professionals, and the general public. The very few years to create a public collection exhibition was perhaps the first museum of 05/14 of modern art which would place her as far modern art, not only by name but by collection as ahead of Paris, Berlin, London as she is at well. The only thing missing was a story that present behind them. This museum of would connect the various works of twentieth- modern art would in no way conflict with century modern art in a coherent historical the Metropolitan but would seek rather to narrative. It took another decade and another establish a relationship to it like that of the modern museum for this to happen. Luxembourg to the Louvre. Torpedo in Time Indeed, later that year, MoMA opened in a five- room rented space with an “historical” exhibition During the spring [of 1929] a small group of of (European) Post-Impressionist art, titled “The people got together and took a first step First Loan Exhibition: Cezanne, Gauguin, Seurat, toward a museum of modern art in New Van Gogh.” This was followed by the more York.
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