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New York 1913: The Armory Show and the Paterson Strike Pageant
Looks at the connections between the Armory Show and the strike pageant
- GenresArt
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1988
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 4, 2009
If you're reading this, then you are interested in the artistic, cultural and political revolution that was happening in NYC at the turn of the century, and this book does not disappoint.
In NYC in 1913 there were two important and far-effecting events. The first was the Armory Show, the art show that introduced modern art the U.S. It was the first general public appearance of Impressionism, Fauvsit, Cubist, Futurist, and other avant-garde works. It was the first time the majority in the U.S. had ever seen anything from Duchamp, Picasso, Cezanne, etc., and it changed art history.
The second event was the Paterson Silk Strike Pageant. Early in 1913 there was a massive strike at the silk mills in Paterson, NJ. The workers, largely immigrants, were fighting for 8 hour days, 5 day work weeks, and improved working conditions. Despite tens of thousands of strikers and thousands of arrests, the NYC press (such as the NYTimes) wasn't covering the struggle, so the leaders of the Strike got together with several intellectuals and organizers of the Armory Show, and recreated the dramatic moments of the strike as a parade and a pageant.
What is remarkable is that a small group of organizers were part of the creation of the Armory Show AND the Paterson Silk Strike Pageant. What is amazing is the level of radical HOPE that was endemic in Greenwich Village in NYC and amongst the strikers in Paterson.
I'm amazed that most of the radical ideas of the 60s (and radicalism itself) came out of these few decades, and few isolated pockets of culture in NYC, Paris, London, etc. Anarchism, Communism, Socialism, racial equality, women's rights, gay rights, free love, anti-patriarchy, etc., all had their origins in this time period, and at the time, their adherents were convinced that they would persevere. Likewise, culturally radical ideas were also billowing: not just the avant-garde art mentioned above, but also in both the avant-garde art music of Stravinsky, Satie, Debussy, Varese and others, and in ragtime, which was the first American music, and which was (like hip hop today) considered lewd, dangerous and full of sex. Likewise, science and technology was experiencing a Renaissance, both through Einstein, Bohr, and others in the theoretical realm, and through Tesla, Wright, Edison and others in the engineering realm.
It was a heady time, but it was also a time that ended with WWI. Most countries went to the right after the war; the few countries that didn't spiraled into decadence, much like the radical scene itself, which was no longer interest in popular engagement, but was now interested in isolation, hedonism, decadence, or nihilism. (Think of the move from the radical optimism and push for change of this period with the pessimistic isolation of the Jazz Age, T.S. Eliot, Dada, Duchamp, and Hemingway's early shorts.)
This book locates the cusp of these radical movements in 1913, and focuses on the Armory Show and the Paterson Strike Silk Pageant in order to look at the various forces in America and elsewhere.
Ultimately, the strike failed, as well as most of the ideals. The art was a massive success that had long lasting ramifications in art and culture, but which also became less and less engaged with the masses. Most of the ideals and ideas of the era went underground until the 60s, which seem to me to be a direct continuation. But that radical time also fell, and largely to the same forces.
In NYC in 1913 there were two important and far-effecting events. The first was the Armory Show, the art show that introduced modern art the U.S. It was the first general public appearance of Impressionism, Fauvsit, Cubist, Futurist, and other avant-garde works. It was the first time the majority in the U.S. had ever seen anything from Duchamp, Picasso, Cezanne, etc., and it changed art history.
The second event was the Paterson Silk Strike Pageant. Early in 1913 there was a massive strike at the silk mills in Paterson, NJ. The workers, largely immigrants, were fighting for 8 hour days, 5 day work weeks, and improved working conditions. Despite tens of thousands of strikers and thousands of arrests, the NYC press (such as the NYTimes) wasn't covering the struggle, so the leaders of the Strike got together with several intellectuals and organizers of the Armory Show, and recreated the dramatic moments of the strike as a parade and a pageant.
What is remarkable is that a small group of organizers were part of the creation of the Armory Show AND the Paterson Silk Strike Pageant. What is amazing is the level of radical HOPE that was endemic in Greenwich Village in NYC and amongst the strikers in Paterson.
I'm amazed that most of the radical ideas of the 60s (and radicalism itself) came out of these few decades, and few isolated pockets of culture in NYC, Paris, London, etc. Anarchism, Communism, Socialism, racial equality, women's rights, gay rights, free love, anti-patriarchy, etc., all had their origins in this time period, and at the time, their adherents were convinced that they would persevere. Likewise, culturally radical ideas were also billowing: not just the avant-garde art mentioned above, but also in both the avant-garde art music of Stravinsky, Satie, Debussy, Varese and others, and in ragtime, which was the first American music, and which was (like hip hop today) considered lewd, dangerous and full of sex. Likewise, science and technology was experiencing a Renaissance, both through Einstein, Bohr, and others in the theoretical realm, and through Tesla, Wright, Edison and others in the engineering realm.
It was a heady time, but it was also a time that ended with WWI. Most countries went to the right after the war; the few countries that didn't spiraled into decadence, much like the radical scene itself, which was no longer interest in popular engagement, but was now interested in isolation, hedonism, decadence, or nihilism. (Think of the move from the radical optimism and push for change of this period with the pessimistic isolation of the Jazz Age, T.S. Eliot, Dada, Duchamp, and Hemingway's early shorts.)
This book locates the cusp of these radical movements in 1913, and focuses on the Armory Show and the Paterson Strike Silk Pageant in order to look at the various forces in America and elsewhere.
Ultimately, the strike failed, as well as most of the ideals. The art was a massive success that had long lasting ramifications in art and culture, but which also became less and less engaged with the masses. Most of the ideals and ideas of the era went underground until the 60s, which seem to me to be a direct continuation. But that radical time also fell, and largely to the same forces.
Currently Reading
April 4, 2009Taking a look back at the convergence of the avant garde art movement and the labor movement in the early 20th century. It's a bit dense at times - I can't help but imagine the author as an absent minded professor, but it's nice to see familiar, revolutionary names like Hutchins Hapgood and Mabel Dodge pop up in a book about artists.
The funny thing is that even a cursory reading of the book, which looks at 1913 as a clear break from the political and artistic past, finds amazing similarities with today.
Take this as an example: "For at that moment, art and politics came together, and so people's hopes and fears came together, also. Irony could be transcended because it seemed that everything one wanted stood together at the end of a single perspective, and everything that one hated stood together in the opposite direction".
Astonishingly, the early 1900s was a time of great change in the communications industry, which helped politicize the country, much like today.
These are just two of the similarities I've found thus far - can't wait to read more.
Just wish he'd had a better editor.
The funny thing is that even a cursory reading of the book, which looks at 1913 as a clear break from the political and artistic past, finds amazing similarities with today.
Take this as an example: "For at that moment, art and politics came together, and so people's hopes and fears came together, also. Irony could be transcended because it seemed that everything one wanted stood together at the end of a single perspective, and everything that one hated stood together in the opposite direction".
Astonishingly, the early 1900s was a time of great change in the communications industry, which helped politicize the country, much like today.
These are just two of the similarities I've found thus far - can't wait to read more.
Just wish he'd had a better editor.
March 4, 2013
Interesting and educational but felt the art part was a bit misinformed on his end. He really should have just done a book about the strike and left the armory show out of it since that was the stronger part of the book.
Want to Read
December 29, 2012I'm shortlisting this on my to-read shelf because the Art Institute is showing some original pieces from the Armory Show in late January!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews