Schamberg attempted “to place modern painting in some historical perspective,” stating that “the art of Cezanne, Matisse, of Picasso, etc. is based upon the same ideas as that of Italy, Greece, Egypt, India, China, Africa or Mexico, in fact, of the art of all the centuries since its first manifestations.”<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n But much of the Philadelphia art establishment didn\u2019t buy Schamberg\u2019s argument. Helen Henderson, the Inquirer\u2019s <\/em>art critic, admitted that modern works seemed \u201creplete with a thousand intoxicating possibilities\u201d and might ultimately \u201crouse us from indifference.\u201d But not quite yet. Most still considered work of the Post Impressionists as “weird shrieks” leaving art lovers with \u201cnothing\u2026of what they knew and loved but the frames.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Schamberg had his work cut out for him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Three years later, with fellow artist Lyman Sa\u00ffen, Schamberg seized the opportunity to assemble and present “a small but brilliantly chosen\u201d and, according to Rishel, \u201cboldly” titled “miniature version of the Armory Show.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally Philadelphians might just be willing to dip their collective toe in the new and exciting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPhiladelphia\u2019s First Exhibition of Advanced Modern Art\u201d opened at the McClees Gallery, 1507 Walnut Street on May 17th, 1916. According to Sylvia Yount, formerly of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and more recently the Metropolitan Museum of Art, this was \u201cthe first major presentation of avant-garde art in Philadelphia.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Henderson noted the success of Schamberg’s \u201clittle exhibition of modern art.” It “created no little interest in the city, proving how ready is the public to visit art exhibitions of a live and interesting character. The exhibition proved the most popular one ever held in this gallery, and attracted an unprecedented number of visitors.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition to selecting, arranging and hanging the show, Schamberg embedded himself in the gallery as an on-site interpreter, engaging visitors interested in understanding modern art, much as Alfred Stieglitz did at 291, his gallery in New York. And more: Schamberg wrote a preface to the show praised by Henderson as \u201cexcellent and illuminating.” This would \u201cvery much assist the spectator to whom the pictures appear enigmatic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Scott, the selection was \u201cintended to reveal how the modern artist had discarded the mere \u2018story-telling\u2019 elements of traditional art, in order to concentrate on the embodiment of \u2018pure esthetic emotion\u2019 of abstract compositions.\u201d But words could only do so much. To achieve a complete understanding of this new \u201cpsychology of aesthetics\u201d and to thoroughly grasp how non-representational art could lead to \u201cpurely visual pleasure,\u201d that would require both \u201ctime and familiarity.\u201d Schamberg concluded his preface with this advice: “The best answer could be found in the pictures themselves.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n And what, exactly, was hung in this watershed exhibition? Works by artists both foreign and American, including several on the threshold of iconic fame: Constantin Br\u00e2ncu\u0219i, Georges Braque, Jean Crotti, Andre Derain, Raoul Dufy, Marcel Duchamp, Raymond Duchamp-Villon, Albert Gleizes, Henri Matisse, Henry L. McFee, Jean Metzinger, Walter Pach, Francis Picabia, Pablo Picasso, May Ray, Georges Rouault, H. Lyman Sa\u00ffen, Morton Livingston Schamberg, Charles Sheeler, Joseph Stella, Jacques Villon, Max Weber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many titles aren’t specific enough to offer a clue, but others might be traced to extant works, including Jean Crotti\u2019s The Mechanical Forces of Love<\/a>; Marcel DuChamp\u2019s The King and Queen Surrounded by Swift Nudes<\/a>; Matisse\u2019s Leather Hat (Marguerite in a leather Hat)<\/a>; Man Ray\u2019s Nativity<\/a>; Metzinger\u2019s Landscape with Church<\/a> and The House and the River<\/a>; Rouault\u2019s The Superman<\/a>;; Joseph Stella\u2019s Prestidigitator<\/a>; Jacques Villon\u2019s Acrobat (L’Acrobate)<\/a>; Max Weber\u2019s Lecture-Phantasy<\/a> (Lecture at the Metropolitan Museum).<\/p>\n\n\n\n We can only guess which Picasso Still Life<\/em> was \u201cimposingly hung in the place of honor,\u201d according to Henderson, but we do know that Schamberg and others considered it “to contain the very essence of the modern movement.\u201d We also know the same painting had been \u201cgreatly admired\u201d when shown at Alfred Stieglitz\u2019s gallery two years earlier. And we know that Schamberg admired Picasso as an artist who “felt nature geometrically.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n Two years after the McClees Gallery show, the second wave of the 1918 Flu Pandemic hit its peak in Philadelphia. As Ben Wolf, Schamberg\u2019s biographer, told it: \u201cDuring an average day, upward of two thousand new cases might be reported.\u201d Schamberg became ill and died on October 13th. He was buried two days later, on his 37th birthday, leaving behind an interesting and abbreviated legacy. His story concludes with unanswerable questions. As Kathleen\u00a0Foster, curator at the Philadelphia Museum of Art put it: Schamberg remains \u201cone of the great \u2018what ifs\u2019 of American art history.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n [Sources: Philadelphia\u2019s First Exhibition of Advanced Modern Art, May 17th to June 15th, 1916 [Checklist] McClees Galleries, 1607 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, Penna.; Philadelphia: Three Centuries of American Art: Bicentennial Exhibition, April 11-October 10, 1976<\/em> (Philadelphia: The Philadelphia Museum of Art: 1976]; Joseph J. Rishel, C\u00e9zanne in Philadelphia Collections<\/em> (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1983); M.L. Schamberg, Preface<\/em> [Philadelphia\u2019s First Exhibition of Advanced Modern Art, May 17th to June 15th, 1916 (McClees Galleries, 1607 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, Penna.); Wiiford Wildes Scott, The Artistic Vanguard in Philadelphia, 1905-1920<\/em> (University of Delaware Ph.D. 1983); Ben Wolf, Morton Livingston Schamberg (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1963; Sylvia Yount, \u201cRocking the Cradle of Liberty: Philadelphia\u2019s Adventures in Modernism\u201d in To Be Modern: American Encounters with Cezanne and Company<\/em> (Philadelphia: Museum of American Art at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1996); and in The Philadelphia Inquirer<\/em>: \u201cPost Impression Exhibit Awaited,\u201d January 19, 1913; Helen W. Henderson, “Jolly Futurists and Classic Cubists Turn World’s Art Galleries Topsy-Turvy,” February 2, 1913; Art and Artists Pass in Review, Apr 16, 1916; Art and Artists Pass in Review, May 7, 1916; Art and Artists Pass in Review, May 21, 1916; Morton L. Schamberg [obituary], October 15, 1918.] <\/p>\n\n\n\n A special thanks to Matthew Affron, The Muriel and Philip Berman Curator of Modern Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/McClees-1507-Walnut-23950-0-corrected-full-height-1-501x1024.jpg\"){kind=spacer}
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