How, When, and Why Modern Art Came to New York

Marius de Zayas (1880-1961), a Mexican artist and writer whose caricatures of New York's theatre, dance and social elite brought him to the attention of Alfred Stieglitz and his circle at 291, was among the most effective propagandists of modern art during the early years of the 20th century. His writings were the first to provide the American public with an intellectual basis upon which to understand and eventually appreciate the newest artistic developments. How, When and Why Modern...
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Marius de Zayas (1880-1961), a Mexican artist and writer whose caricatures of New York's theatre, dance and social elite brought him to the attention of Alfred Stieglitz and his circle at 291, was among the most effective propagandists of modern art during the early years of the 20th century. His writings were the first to provide the American public with an intellectual basis upon which to understand and eventually appreciate the newest artistic developments. How, When and Why Modern Art Came to New York, originally written in the late 1940s, is a chronicle assembled from de Zaya's personal archive of photographs and from newspaper reviews of the exhibitions he discusses, beginning with those held at the Stieglitz gallery and including important shows mounted in his own galleries: The Modern Gallery (1915-1918) and The de Zayas Gallery (1919-1921).