This page is referenced by:

• 1 2024-08-13T20:26:48-07:00 The Critiques and The Comics 20 plain 2024-08-13T20:59:03-07:00

               Elizabeth Lunday summarizes some of the early critiques of the 1913 New York Armory Show in her book, The Modern Art Invasion: Picasso, Duchamp, and the 1913 Armory Show That Scandalized America. 
  - “The Sun reported, “Any fear that the weird paintings of the Post-Impressionists, Cubists, and Futurists… would not be appreciated in this country was dispelled” 
  - “Joseph Edgar Chamberlin of the Evening Mail praised the show as “getting at the vital in art” and applauded organizers’ efforts to search out distinctive voices.” 
  - “Hutchins Hapgood at the Globe fell over himself with enthusiasm, writing that at the show “the skyscrapers of prejudice were shaken and the static buildings of outwork tradition were set on fire” (Lunday 63 CHECK CITATION)
              However, most of the later responses to the Armory Show would heavily critique the choices of the Armory Show organizers and the European avant-garde that was displayed in the exhibition, especially the Chicagoans that wrote about the show. 
            “While the Journal-American marveled the show “is making its presence felt in a way that probably no previous exhibition in the country has ever done,” the Evening World proclaimed, “No Imagination Outside the Psychopathic Ward of Bellevue or the Confines of Matteawan [State Hospital for the Criminally Insane] Can Conceive Without Actually Seeing It What a Cubist Picture Is Like” (Lunday 63)
              In Chicago, the headlines about the Armory Show demonstrated mass outrage and disgust towards developing modern art trends. Highlights include:
  - “Big Crowd Expected At Freak Art Exhibit” The Chicago Evening Post, Wednesday March 19th, 1913.
  - “Futurist Paint Puzzles Arrive: Look Like a State of Mind” Chicago Examiner, Wednesday March 19th, 1913.
  - “Hark! Hark! The Critics Bark! The CUBISTS Are Coming To Town With CUBIST Hags and CUBIST Nags And Even A Cubist Gown” The Sunday Record-Herald, Sunday March 23rd, 1913. 
  - “Weird Art Is Shown” The Daily News, Monday March 24th, 1913. 
  - “Cubist Art Severs Friendships - Institute Directors Are Divided” The Inter Ocean, Friday March 28th, 1913.
  - “What’s a Cubist Or a Futurist? Just a Shudder!” Record Herald, Tuesday April 1st, 1913. 
  - “President Wilson A Cubist? Sure! Art Collector Says” The Chicago Daily Tribune, Friday April 4th, 1913. 
  - “Cubist Art Ruffles Up Tempers Of Society Folk at Flower Show” The Sunday Record-Herald, Sunday April 6th, 1913. 
   - “Art Institute Grilled By Pastor For Cubist Show” Chicago Daily Journal, Monday April 7th, 1913. 
  - “Creator of ‘Futurist Art’ Admits It’s Fake” Chicago Daily Journal, Tuesday April 8th , 1913. 
              The press-coverage of the Chicago Armory Show ended in a blaze of glory on Monday, April 16th when a group of students from the Art Institute of Chicago revolted and burned copies of Cubist paintings in the street.  Headlines such as, “Students Burning Futurist Art and Celebrating Cubist Departure” (The Chicago Daily Tribune) and “Cubist Art Exhibit Ends ‘At The Stake’” (The Chicago Record-Herald) filled Chicago newspapers. Shortly after, the Armory Show was on its way to Boston, where it would receive today’s equivalent of what our society deems a “side-eye”.
              Although the newspaper headlines from the Armory Show have proven to be entertaining, they didn’t even come close to the response cartoonists would provide via the daily newspapers. When the show started in New York, cartoonists had responded quickly to modern art with their opinions, personal responses, and interpretations of the show. Chicago cartoonists followed suit. You can view the most infamous cartoonist responses below(or to the left/right however it is organized) 
  - The New Art by Mauriece Ketten 
  - J. F. Griswold’s “The Rude Descending a Staircase (Rush Hour at the Subway)” 
  
  - “The Original Cubist,” Clare Briggs (1875–1930), New York Evening Sun, April 1, 1913. 
  - “With the Cubists and Futurists,” Puck, March 19, 1913. 
  - “Nobody Who Has Been Drinking is Let in to See This Show.” Alek Sass, New York World, February 17, 1913. 
  - “The Modern Art Show,” Winsor McCay, New York Herald, 1913. 
  - “Art, Past, Present, Future,” Life, April 24, 1913. (New York Society Library) 
  - “The ‘New Art’ Fest,” Frederick Opper (American, 1857–1937), New York American, February 27, 1913. 
  - “How to Become a Post-Impressionist Paint Slinger,” John T. McCutcheon (American, 1870–1949), New York Evening Sun, March 6, 1913. 
  
              Mary Mills Lyall and Earl Harvey Lyall, a married couple who also happened to be a writer/illustrator duo, even went as far as to publish a satirical alphabet book poking fun at the show, titled, The Cubies’ ABC (1913). 
              Cartoonists created many comics in response to the 1913 Armory Show partially because they were upset by European avant-garde artists receiving more recognition than any American cartoonist and illustrators had in their time. These patterns of cartoonists’ work being undervalued continued throughout the 1900s, with the rise of Pop Art and cartoons being considered lowbrow within the world of fine art.