From April to May 1913, 291 exhibited eighteen drawings by de Zayas in his third and last show at the gallery, titled "Caricature: Absolute and Relative." The exhibition reflected de Zayas's two very different approaches to portraiture—one based on satirizing a subject's recognizable physical attributes, and the other relying on abstract signs and symbols— to allude to more intangible qualities of intelligence, spirituality, and personality. In this exceptional composition, de Zayas conveys the complexity of Stieglitz's mind (note the elaborate mathematical equations) as well as his direct gaze and artistic focus (represented by the repetitive circles of his eyes/glasses/camera lens) and the intensity he brought to all of his activities (suggested by the many lines, patterns, and diagonals). Yet even in this abstract composition, there are traces of a physical likeness—wild hair, eyeglasses, and bristly mustache. The central motif, a vertical line between five pairs of circles, was inspired by a rope object made in Pukapuka (Cook Islands), called a "soul-catcher." To de Zayas, and to all the members of the Stieglitz circle, the very phrase captured Stieglitz's mesmerizing hold on their artistic souls.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Alfred Stieglitz
Artist:Marius de Zayas (Mexican, Veracruz 1880–1961 Stamford, Connecticut)
Date:ca. 1912–13
Medium:Charcoal on paper
Dimensions:24 1/2 × 18 5/8 in. (62.2 × 47.3 cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:Alfred Stieglitz Collection, 1949
Object Number:49.70.184
the artist (to Stieglitz); Alfred Stieglitz, New York (probably 1913–d. 1946; his estate, 1946–49; gift to MMA)
New York. 291. "An Exhibition of Caricatures, Absolute and Relative, by Marius de Zayas of New York," April 8–May 20, 1913, no. 1 [probably this work].
New York. Whitney Studio Club. "Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings: Selected and Arranged by Mr. W.E. Hill," January 23–February 6, 1924, no catalogue.
New York. An American Place. "Beginnings and Landmarks: "291," 1905–1917," October 27–December 27, 1937, no. 52 (dated 1912).
Philadelphia Museum of Art. "History of an American, Alfred Stieglitz: '291' and After, Selections from the Stieglitz Collection," July 1–November 1, 1944, no. 168 (dated 1913).
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Alfred Stieglitz Exhibition: His Collection," June 10–August 31, 1947, no catalogue (checklist no. 51; dated 1913).
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "From the Alfred Stieglitz Collection: An Extended Loan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art," May 22–August 12, 1951, no catalogue (checklist no. E.L.51.709; loan extended to June 9, 1958).
Paris. Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou. "Paris–New York," June 1–September 19, 1977, unnumbered cat. (p. 235; dated 1913).
London. Hayward Gallery. "Dada and Surrealism Reviewed," January 11–March 27, 1978 (p. 14; ill. of different version).
Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Caracas. "El Espíritu Dada 1915-1925," November 14, 1980–January 15, 1981, unnumbered cat. (p. 188).
Lawrence. Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas. "Marius de Zayas: Conjurer of Souls," September 27–November 8, 1981, no. 23.
Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Marius de Zayas: Conjurer of Souls," December 18, 1981 – February 14, 1982, no. 23.
New York. Center for Inter-American Relations. "Marius de Zayas: Conjurer of Souls," March 2 – April 4, 1982, no. 23.
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "'Primitivism' in 20th Century Art: Affinity of the Tribal and the Modern," September 19, 1984–January 15, 1985, unnumbered cat. (p. 464).
Detroit Institute of Arts. "'Primitivism' in 20th Century Art: Affinity of the Tribal and the Modern," February 27–May 19, 1985, unnumbered cat.
Dallas Museum of Art. "'Primitivism' in 20th Century Art: Affinity of the Tribal and the Modern," July 23–September 1, 1985, unnumbered cat.
New York. Lehman College Art Gallery. November 1–December 15, 1989, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Marius de Zayas: A Mexican in New York," September 13, 1990–March 1991, no catalogue.
Washington. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. "Group Portrait: The First American Avant-Garde," May 10–October 27, 1991, unnumbered cat.
Katonah, N. Y. Katonah Museum of Art. "Friends and Family: Portraiture in the World of Florine Stettheimer," September 19–November 28, 1993, unnumbered cat. (fig. 3).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "As They Were: 1900–1929," April 9–September 8, 1996, no catalogue.
New York. Whitney Museum of American Art. "Making Mischief: Dada Invades New York," November 21, 1996–February 23, 1997, unnumbered cat. (p. 40).
Washington, D. C. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. "Celebrity Caricature in America," April 10–August 23, 1998, unnumbered cat. (fig. 4.27).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Marius de Zayas & Stieglitz Circle," March 19–June 27, 2004, no catalogue.
Paris. Musée d'Orsay. "New York et l'art moderne: Alfred Stieglitz et son cercle (1905–1930)," October 18, 2004–January 16, 2005, no. 34.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Stieglitz and His Artists: Matisse to O'Keeffe," October 13, 2011–January 2, 2012, no. 251.
William B. McCormick. "Review." New York Press (1913), (reprintd in "Camera Work," no. 42–43, April–July 1913; publ. November 1913, p. 52).
[Samuel Swift]. "De Zayas Charts Your Soul Force." Sun (April 22, 1913), p. 7, generally discusses works in Exh. New York 1913.
Camera Work no. 46 (April 1914 [publ. October 1914]), pl. 5.
"Review of Whitney Studio Club Exhibition." Evening World (March 7, 1924).
Waldo Frank, Lewis Mumford, Dorothy Norman, Paul Rosenfeld, and Harold Rugg, ed. America and Alfred Stieglitz: A Collective Portrait. Garden City, N. Y., 1934, pl. XIB.
George Heard Hamilton. "The Alfred Stieglitz Collection." Metropolitan Museum Journal 3 (1970), pp. 373, 384–85, fig. 2.
Dorothy Norman. Alfred Stieglitz: An American Seer. New York, 1973, p. 107, fig. 46 (photogravure).
William I. Homer, ed. Avant-Garde Painting and Sculpture in America, 1910–25. Exh. cat., Delaware Art Museum. Wilmington, 1975, p. 63, ill.
Craig R. Bailey. "The Art of Marius de Zayas." Arts Magazine 53 (September 1978), p. 140, ill. p. 139 (photogravure).
Susan Fillin-Yeh. "Charles Sheeler's 1923 'Self-Portrait'." Arts Magazine 52 (January 1978), p. 109, ill. p. 108.
Waldo Frank, Lewis Mumford, Dorothy Norman, Paul Rosenfeld, and Harold Rugg, ed. America and Alfred Stieglitz: A Collective Portrait. Rev. ed (1st ed., 1934). Millerton, N. Y., 1979, pl. 51.
Willard Bohn. "The Abstract Vision of Marius de Zayas." Art Bulletin 62 (September 1980), pp. 435–38, 441, 443–44, fig. 3.
Marius de Zayas. "How, When, and Why Modern Art Came to New York." Arts Magazine 54 (April 1980), p. 114, fig. 97.
Douglas Hyland. Marius de Zayas: Conjurer of Souls. Exh. cat., Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas. Lawrence, Kansas, 1981, pp. 34, 63 n. 100, p. 104, no. 23, ill. p. 105.
Sarah Whitaker Peters. Becoming O'Keeffe: The Early Years. New York, 1991, p. 64, fig. 28.
Steven Watson. Strange Bedfellows: The First American Avant-Garde. New York, 1991, p. 100, ill.
Francis M. Naumann. New York Dada, 1915–23. New York, 1994, pp. 15, 58–59, 225 n. 16, ill. p. 13.
Barbara Haskell. The American Century: Art and Culture, 1900–1950. Exh. cat., Whitney Museum of American Art. New York, 1999, p. 120, fig. 213.
Charles Brock in Sarah Greenough. Modern Art and America: Alfred Stieglitz and His New York Galleries. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington, D. C., 2000, pp. 147–48, fig. 54.
Lisa Mintz Messinger inStieglitz and His Artists: Matisse to O'Keeffe. The Alfred Stieglitz Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Lisa Mintz Messinger. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2011, pp. 219, 234–35, 290–91, no. 251, ill. (color).
Marius de Zayas (Mexican, Veracruz 1880–1961 Stamford, Connecticut)
1915
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