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Debating American Modernism: Stieglitz, Duchamp, and the New York Avant-Garde
January–November 2003

Debra Bricker Balken, an independent curator and writer, recently received a Senior Fellowship from the Dedalus Foundation, and was a 2001 Clark Art Institute Fellow.


The circle of artists associated with “291,” the gallery owned by Alfred Stieglitz (1864–1946),  has come to occupy a pivotal place in the history of American modernist art. The artists, including Arthur Dove and Marsden Hartley, were committed to the belief that nature was the source for the renewal of visual culture. This was a view that was increasingly contested in 1915 with the arrival in New York of Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) and Francis Picabia, who promoted modern machinery as a creative catalyst and touted a more theoretical approach to art. The approximately seventy-five paintings, sculptures, photographs, and drawings included in this exhibition curated by Debra Bricker Balken represented the rivaling schools and reflected their opposing views on such subjects as abstraction, nature, creative intuition, and modern machinery.

Exhibition Itinerary: Georgia O'Keefe Museum   (January 24–April 20, 2003); Des Moines Art Center (May 10–August 3, 2003); and Terra Museum of American Art (August 29–November 30, 2003).

The exhibition is organized by the American Federation of Arts. It is a project of ART ACCESS II, a program of the AFA with major support from the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund. Additional support is provided by the National Patrons of the AFA.

Marcel Duchamp
Fountain 1917 (fifth version, 1964, Galleria Schwarz, Milan,
number 3 in an edition of 8)
Glazed ceramic white ware urinal
14 1/4 x 19 x 24 inches
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Purchased 1971 (29953)
© Succession Marcel Duchamp, 2002, ARS, NY / ADAGP, Paris