The Heckscher Museum of Art is pleased to present Modernizing America: Artists of the Armory Show.  On view from December 8 through April 14, 2013 this Museum Permanent Collection exhibition celebrates the centennial of the Armory Show featuring works by American artists who participated in the legendary exhibition that introduced modernist art to America.

In 1913, the American public was introduced to avant-garde European art styles at the International Exhibition of Modern Art, held at the Lexington Avenue Armory and known as the Armory Show. Organized by the Association of American Painters and Sculptors, the Armory Show created a sensation; the controversial and radical art displayed there proved to be a watershed in the development of 20th-century American art. Modernizing America: Artists of the Armory Show focuses on American artists who participated in the exhibition. When discussing the significance of the Museum’s exhibition, Curator Lisa Chalif remarked, “The Armory Show was a transformative event in the history of art in America.  Artists, critics, and the public were exposed to avant-garde Futurist, Cubist, and Fauve work by European artists that challenged America’s conservative outlook.  Scandalous works like Duchamp’s Nude Descending a Staircase were lampooned in New York’s daily press.  In Chicago, copies of Matisse paintings were burned and a mock trial was held, finding the artist guilty of ‘artistic murder’ and ‘general esthetic aberration.’ Many American artists responded favorably to the exhibition, developing progressive styles that helped lay the groundwork for America’s artistic predominance later in the century.”  Drawn exclusively from the Museum’s Permanent Collection, this exhibition explores the impact of modern European art movements on American art in the early years of the 20th Century. 

Also opening on December 8 is Mirrored Images: Realism in the 19th and 20th Centuries which explores the various realist movements of the 19th and 20th Centuries, beginning with the Barbizon movement in mid-19th century France and the concurrent Hudson River School in America, and progressing through later 19th-century realism and 20th-century realist movements, such as the Ashcan School, American Scene painting, Magic Realism, Photorealism, and East End (Long Island) realism.