I’ll admit: I thought we were going to be looking at armor, something I have actually done at the Met. But after a bit of research, I learned that the Armory Show was a showcase of the works of current artists during the time. The armor in Armory Show, however, came not from the pieces in the exhibit, but came from the belligerent responses from the audiences who went to see it.

It was a bit difficult to see some of the artwork in a tight crowded space. However, this piece caught my eye:

Georges Braque

This piece particularly caught my eye, the festive colors and how it all blends together really fascinated me and brought an uplifting mood to the painting. The short and frequent strokes of the colors brought a sense of life into the painting but also made the painting more fictitious looking, child-like, and friendly. However, those viewing it for the first time in 1913 would disagree. Viewers and art aficionados found it almost primitive and child-like, not worthy for the elite to view as art.

Georges Braque’s style of art for this painting is considered Fauvism, a style that stems from Impressionism that features bright colorful strokes and distorted figures. At the time, art was meant only for “adults”, or rather, those who could afford artworks in their homes. They felt that this Fauvist-type work was a regression in the name of art and did not require much skill nor talent to make and thus angered many audiences who came to view this painting. Audiences at the time expected artworks to resemble subjects in life as much as possible and for art to depict different themes of nobility, virtuousness, and other romantic ideas. Different types of works that deterred from this was considered trash. However, it is works like this that would lead to Modernism, the next big phase in art history.