291 (Art Gallery)

291 is the commonly known name for an internationally famous art gallery that was located at 291 Fifth Avenue in New York City from 1905 to 1917. Originally known as the "Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession", the gallery was created and managed by photographer Alfred Stieglitz.

The gallery is famous for two reasons. First, the exhibitions there helped bring art photography to the same stature in America as painting and sculpture. Pioneering artistic photographers such as Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, Alvin Langdon Coburn, Gertrude Kasebier and Clarence H. White all gained critical recognition through exhibitions at 291. More importantly, Stieglitz used this space to introduce to the United States some of the most avant-garde European artists of the time, including Henri Matisse, Auguste Rodin, Henri Rousseau, Paul Cezanne, Pablo Picasso, Constantin Brancusi, Francis Picabia and Marcel Duchamp.

Backgound

At the beginning of the 20th century photography's place in the world of fine art was still very indefinite. Although there had been major exhibitions of photography in the Europe and in the U.S., all of them had been judged by painters and sculptors. Photographers were not considered "real" artists, even though many photographers had won awards in international salons. Stieglitz himself had won over 150 awards throughout the world by the end of the 1890s.

Stieglitz had hoped to elevate the position of photography by convincing the New York Camera Club to allow him to put together a panel of photographers who would then be the sole judges of a photography competition. After more than a year of arguing with the directors of the Camera Club, many of whom did not have any passion for photography as art, Stieglitz gave up and began looking for other forums.

In late 1900 he met Edward Steichen, who had been trained as a painter but who had also taken up photography. Steichen shared the enthusiasm and passion of Stieglitz, and soon the two were planning how to change the course of photography in America. By the following year they had conceived of a great exhibition of photography, the first to be judged by photographers themselves, and had found a venue at the National Arts Club in New York. In March, 1902, and exhibition of "American Pictorial Photography, arranged by The Photo-Secession" opened to critical acclaim. Moreover, Stieglitz had met his goal of having a show judged by photographers since, in spite of the title of the show, by all accounts he was the sole person responsible for selecting the exhibitors.

The following year Stieglitz further cemented his reputation as the leading proponent of fine art photography by launching the famed journal "Camera Work" with the assistance of his friend and fellow photographer Joseph Keiley. He expected that "Camera Work" would soon not only be funded completely by its subscribers but that additional income from the sales of the journal would allow him to further promote "photography as a medium of individual expression." []

The change in the focus of the gallery led to a coalescence of group of intellectuals and artists who both sympathized with Stieglitz’s aims and who themselves were invigorated by the atmosphere there. After the artistic success of the Matisse exhibit the gallery took on a new life. Any given day Stieglitz might have been surrounded by artists John Marin, Max Weber, Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley or Marius de Zayas; authors and art critics Sadakichi Hartmann and Benjamin De Casseres; financial supporters Paul Haviland and Agnes Ernst Meyer; and editors and collaborators Joseph Keiley and John Kerfoot.

De Zayas had both a passion and a vision that matched with Stieglitz’s personality, and soon he was helping define the what the aesthetics of this new generation of art would be. His work was exhibited at the gallery, he wrote several articles for "Camera Work", and he introduced Stieglitz to some of the newest European artists by serving as a guide and interpreter when Stieglitz would travel to Europe. His interest in African tribal art and admiration for Picasso's Cubist work convinced Stieglitz to hold groundbreaking exhibitions of these subjects at 291.

For historical context, virtually no other galleries in the United States were showing works with such abstract and dynamic content at that time. Whether it was already controversial European artists like Picasso, Matisse or Cezanne, or relatively unknown but soon-to-be-famous Americans like Marin, Weber, Dove or Hartley, Stieglitz had both the aesthetic sense and the nerve to showcase individuals who are now acknowledged to have been at the forefront of modern art.

In fact, the more an artist confounded the public the more Stieglitz felt justified in his efforts. When he presented Picasso’s first exhibit in this country in 1911, Stieglitz delighted in telling critics that the works they called “the gibberings of a lunatic” he found to be “as perfect as a Bach fugue.”

Among the significant exhibitions that took place during this period were first shows for Alfred Maurer, John Marin and Marsden Hartley, second shows of Rodin and Matisse, and important shows for newer artists Arthur Carles, Arthur Dove and Max Weber.

The Later Years (1913-1917)

Starting in 1913 Stieglitz began to express an increasing amount of frustration over the changes that were happening in the world at that time. He wrote "Much of the enthusiasm that had existed at 291 gradually disappeared because of the coming war. Close friends seemed to fall by the wayside." Stieglitz was especially troubled because his parents came from Germany, and he still had many close friends there. While he did not sympathize with the German war efforts, he "could not see Germany as all wrong and the Allies as all right.". At the same time, because of the depressed economy attendance at the gallery sharply declined and subscriptions to "Camera Work" dropped off. To make matters even worse, the small corps of volunteer workers at the galley all but disappeared as people joined the armed forces or had to take on other jobs to help make ends meet.

Once again it was Haviland who came to the rescue. In early 1915 he told Stieglitz that 291 was in a rut, and something bold was needed to bring it back again. He assembled a close circle of relatively well-off friends, including Agnes Meyer and Dorothy Norman, and together with Stieglitz they came up with the idea of publishing a new magazine. They decided that this time it would be not only a magazine about art but a work of art itself, printed in a limited edition with very high quality paper and reproductions. The new magazine, which they all agreed should be called "291", appeared in March, 1915, to critical acclaim. Twelve issues of "291" were printed over the next fourteen months, showcasing some of the most avant-garde art and design of the times.

Unfortunately, the magazine did little to revive the status of the gallery. Stieglitz continued to present some outstanding shows, but the overall effect of the mounting war tension on the economy could not be overcome. In 1916 an event happened that further sealed the fate of the gallery: Stieglitz met Georgia O'Keeffe. He immediately became fascinated with her, and over the next year he began to devote his energy toward a relationship with her and away from the daily toils of running the gallery.

In June, 1917, only two months after the United States declared war on German, Stieglitz closed 291. He made a photograph called 'The Last Days of 291" (National Gallery of Art, Alfred Stieglitz Collection) which symbolized his feelings at the time. It depicts a model of a young soldier, armed with a sword and a broom, protecting works of art behind him. To his side is an older, bandaged warrior looking on, possibly representing Stieglitz himself as someone who had been wounded in the battle to protect the art that must now be guarded by a new generation.

Later Stieglitz would return to New York to run two more galleries. From 1925-29 he directed the Intimate Gallery, showcasing the work of American artists, including Marsden Hartley, Arthur Dove, John Marin, Paul Strand, Charles Demuth, and Georgia O'Keeffe, who by then had become his wife. In 1929 he opened "An American Place", where he presented the work of the "Seven Americans" (Hartley, Marin, Dove, Demuth, O'Keeffe, Strand and Stieglitz) until his death in 1946. [ [http://www.georgia-okeeffe.com/gallery291.html Alfred Stieglitz's Gallery 291] ]

The Essence of 291

In 1914 Stieglitz published a series of responses to the question "What is 291?" in an issue of "Camera Work". [] Here are some the those writings:

Eugene Meyer responded with a free-form poem. To him 291 represented::”An oasis of real freedom:A sturdy Islet of enduring independence in the besetting seas of Commercialism and Convention:A rest – when wearied:A stimulant – when dulled:A Relief:A Negation of Preconceptions:A Forum for Wisdom and for Folly:A Safety valve for repressed ideas:An Eye Opener:A Test—:A Solvent:A Victim and an Avenger"

J. B. Kerfoot: "291 is greater than the sum of all its definitions. For it is a living force, working for both good and evil. To me, 291 has meant an intellectual antidote to the nineteenth century...":

William Zorach: "I have visited 291 very often and to me it is a wonderful living place palpitating with red blood - a place to which people bring their finest and that brings out the finest that is within all those that come into actual contact with it."

Marsden Hartley: "A pure instrument is certainly sure to give forth pure sound. So has this instrument of 291 kept itself pure as possible that it thereby gives out pure expression."

Legacy

Over the gallery's 13 year existence, the exhibitions held there included an impressive list of firsts in both photography and modern art: [ [http://www.nationalreview.com/weekend/art/art-seckora020301.shtml Melissa Seckora: Modern Champions] ]
* 1907: The first show of Autochrome prints in the United States
* 1908: The first showing of Rodin's late pencil and watercolor figure drawings
* 1908: The first exhibition of Matisse's work ever held in the United States
* 1910: The first three lithographs made by Cézanne were shown
* 1911: The first U.S. one-person exhibition of Cézanne
* 1911: The first U.S. one-person exhibition of Picasso
* 1912: The world's first exhibition of Matisse's sculpture.

List of Exhibitions

The definitive source book for 291 and the exhibitions held there is Sarah Greenough's massive "Modern Art and America: Alfred Stieglitz and His New York Galleries" (Washington: National Gallery of Art, 2000). This list is found on pp.543-547.

References

External Links

[http://www.smu.edu/ecenter/discourse/schieb2.htm Alfred Stieglitz and Gallery 291]

* [http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/modart_2.shtm History of 291] , written by the U.S. National Gallery of Art (with an emphasis towards the 291's role in painting rather than photography).