The history of alfred stieglitz's art gallery

Alfred Stieglitz was born on January 1, 1864 and died in 1946. The first born son to German Jewish immigrant parents, Edward and Hedwig Stieglitz, became one of America’s most famous and prominent photographers. He was, however, also instrumental in promoting modernist art to the American mainstream public.

American art had largely rejected major advanced movements of European modern art until sometime around 1945, when the contemporary period emerged out of New York City. There had been, of course, many American artists who had studied in the academies of Paris, Munich and Dusseldorf, but they had been either ignored, or were simply unaware of the new ideas being generated by the Impressionist and Symbolists in informal cafe meetings. The exception to this lack of interest included artists such as Whistler, Sargent, and Mary Cassatt, along with artists of the early 20th century known as the students of the Ash Can School.

“American Pictorial Photography Arranged by the ‘Photo-Secessions.’” He had a revolutionary vision of photography, feeling that “pictorialism” was faded and outworn. He viewed photography as a form of art when most people regarded the camera as a curiosity or a fad.

Many other serious artists had also attempted to use photography as an art form, yet they tended to use a more painterly or impressionistic style. His own mode of “seeing” in his photography was increasingly characterized by a sense of clarity and was more consciously abstract in form.

By 1905, his protegee, Edward Steichen (who was a painter and photographer) had talked him into renting the studio that he was vacating and two connecting rooms at 291 Fifth Avenue. They then opened what was called at the time, the Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession, which later became known as simply “291.” It was there that Steiglitz became increasingly more interested in advancing European modernism to Americans. In 1908 he opened his first modern art exhibit at “291” featuring the works of European

modernist artists such as Rodin, Picasso, Cezanne as well as American artists, Max Weber, John Marin, Arthur C. Dove and many others. Steichen lived in Europe at the time and exposed Stieglitz to these modern European artists. It appears he was a little ambivalent at first and disliked the works by Rodin, but Steichen perservered in educating Stieglitz. By 1909, he was being introducted to Leo and Gertrude Stein. By this time, Stieglitz was well aquainted with the works of Matisse, Picasso, and Cezanne, and began to actively negotiate with Leo and Gertrude to exhibit their massive art collection in his gallery.

Steichen was the first of Stieglitz’s “fatherless children.” A man of boundless energy, Stieglitz took in many artists who had been either symbolically or literally abandoned by their biological father. His disciples called themselves the Round Table, consisting of artists and literary people, and he would tirelessly devote himself to promoting their work. One of those “fatherless children” was his future wife, Georgia O’Keefe. These disciples would literally descend, en masse, upon his studio daily, to lunch at Mouquin’s or Holland House, an elegant art noveau restaurant in the Saint George Hotel on 28th street.

In 1913, Stieglitz’s group, along with the Ash Can Painters, opened the International Exhibition of Modern Art, also known as the Armory Show. However, although the exhibit was a huge success, these artist’s influence on Modern American art was delayed. World War I soldiers were to see Paris for the first time thus reinforcing the notion that Paris was the center of the art world. Then American artists and intellectuals soon began flocking to Paris in the 20’s during the American Depression.

It was not until after the Hitler-Stalin pact was signed in 1939 that these artists fled Europe, returned to America, along with many European artists as well, and most naturally gravitated to New York. By 1943 the Surrealists, such as Ernst, Tanguy, Dali, Breton, Mondrian, and Chagall

had begun to make impressions on younger artists that had just arrived in New York.

This younger generation of artists tended to be drawn to groups, but were less likely to be concerned with common ideologies. These younger artists included Jackson Pollack, Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, and Arshile Gorky.

The contemporary art movement that emerged out of New York, after WWII, can thank the infusion of European distinguished teachers of art, art deals, and architects that had also come to America. And, during the fifties, many leading artist were invited to art schools and colleges

throughout the country to become guest instructors, thus advancing the new theories of art that were finally beginning to take hold of the American sensibilities. Contemporary American art was finally being revolutionized into a new arena that infiltrated all areas of culture, society, and politics that was to propel New York art into a place of dominant influence throughout the rest of the world.