BOOK REVIEW: The Modern Art Invasion: Picasso, Duchamp, and the 1913 Armory Show That Scandalized America by Elizabeth Lunday

I know next to nothing about art/art history. But I became intrigued by a reference to the 1913 Armory Show and wanted to learn more about it. Modern Art had been dribbling across the Atlantic from Paris to New York thanks to a few intrepid collectors and artists. Yet the U.S. was mostly isolated from European influences: impressionism, cubism, fauvism, etc. It took the determination of a small group of artists who were dissatisfied with the grip held over American art by the ultra-conservative National Academy of Design to break that grip. They decided to put together an art show that encouraged young American artists and exposed the U.S. to new ways of thinking about art. The Armory Show took America (or at least New York) by storm.

The Modern Art Invasion: Picasso, Duchamp, and the 1913 Armory Show That Scandalized America by Elizabeth Lunday is a quick-paced introduction to twentieth-century art history. Focusing on the personalities of the organizers and their detractors, the author gives a concise (and a bit whirlwind) tour through art of the time. Not long after the show closed in the U.S., Europe was engulfed by war. Yet the impulse to create new art, to challenge assumptions about art, to question even what constitutes art, survived the war and came surging back when it ended. 

This is a fascinating and informative book with an extensive bibliography for those who want to delve deeper. Highly recommended!