Construction, New York

1910

The Albright show and a new round of attacks

In 1910 the director of the Albright Art Gallery invited Stieglitz to organise a major show of the best contemporary photography, which provoked a new round of attacks: American Photography magazine called the Photo-Secession “a reactionary force of the most dangerous type”. “The reputation, not only of the Photo-Secession, but of photography is at stake,” Stieglitz wrote to the photographer George Seeley.

March – April 1911

Cézanne watercolours and Picasso drawings at 291

In March 1911 Stieglitz presented Cézanne's watercolours to the American public, and in April drawings and watercolours by Picasso.

1913

The Armory Show, and his own photographs at 291

Stieglitz lent works from 291 to the organisers, Walter Pach, Arthur B. Davies and Walt Kuhn, and was listed as an honorary vice-president of the exhibition along with Claude Monet, Odilon Redon, Mabel Dodge and Isabella Stewart Gardner. He saw the Armory Show, which opened in February 1913, as a vindication of his five years of work at 291, where he simultaneously showed his own photographs so that the public could see photographs and modern paintings side by side.

January – May 1916

Meets Georgia O'Keeffe

In January 1916 the suffragist Anita Pollitzer showed Stieglitz a set of charcoal drawings by Georgia O'Keeffe, and he decided to exhibit them at 291 without meeting her or asking her permission. In late May O'Keeffe heard of it from a friend and came to the gallery to chastise him, which is how they met; by the summer of 1917 they were writing each other their most private thoughts.

1918

O'Keeffe comes to New York; he leaves his family

In early June 1918 O'Keeffe moved to New York from Texas after Stieglitz promised her a quiet studio. Within a month his wife Emmy came home during one of the first nude photography sessions in the family apartment and told him to stop seeing O'Keeffe or get out; Stieglitz left and immediately found a place in the city where he and O'Keeffe could live together.

15 December 1929

Opens An American Place

On December 15, 1929, Stieglitz opened An American Place, the largest gallery he had ever managed, with the first darkroom of his own in the city. For sixteen years he showed his friends Marin, Demuth, Hartley, Dove and Strand there, and O'Keeffe received at least one major exhibition each year.