Theodore Roosevelt, art critic. There is something you don’t hear too often. And yet it is true. It sounds surprising but given that Roosevelt was such a polymath it shouldn’t be. For one thing he visited the great museums of Europe as a young man during the family’s two extended visits abroad. The family also had a hand in founding the American Museum of Natural History and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Theodore Roosevelt knew more about art and culture than he let on. Colonel Roosevelt covered the 1913 Armory Show as a working journalist for The Outlook magazine. Roosevelt took a skeptical but not entirely dismissive view of the International Exhibition of Modern Art. He acknowledged that artists must think and work in new ways to expand and invigorate the creative process. At the same time he decried the “extremists” who he believed sought only to titillate and provoke. It was a very Rooseveltian take. Still even if he did not entirely agree with everything he saw at the 69th Regiment Armory in the winter of 1913, he gave it the respect of a subtle and thought out analysis. (KM) (Images: the 69th Regiment Armory on East 25th Street as it was in 1913 and today in 2014)
Posted on: Tue, 09 Sep 2014 14:00:01 +0000
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