A Revolutionary Event.

Of all the art exhibitions during the 1910s, the Armory Show in 1913 issued the greatest challenge to the art establishment. In late 1911 more than two dozen New York painters and sculptors, many of whom had been involved in the independents' exhibitions, organized as the Association of American Painters and Sculptors, with Arthur B. Davies, a member of The Eight, as the first president. The new group decided to hold a major international exhibition. Hoping to include a large number of artworks, they rented the Sixty-ninth Regiment Armory on Lexington Avenue in New York City and spent the next year scouting, especially in Europe, for works to exhibit. When the show opened on 17 February 1913, it included more than thirteen hundred paintings, drawings, and sculptures, some introducing new styles and ideas that both fascinated and shocked the opening-night guests. Reviewers called the show an event not to be...