February 17, 2021 • 11 mins
On this day in 1913, the Armory Show, an exhibition showcasing modern art by hundreds of American and European artists, opened in New York City. / On this day in 1838, Zulus killed Voortrekkers in the Weenen massacre.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, y'all, Eve's here. We're doubling up today with two
events in history on with the show Welcome to this
Day in History class, where we bring you a new
tidbid from history every day. The day was February nineteen.
(00:25):
More than twelve hundred artworks by around three hundred artists
were on display in New York City. Matisse, go Again,
du Schamp, Kathleen mccinnery, Picasso, much Cezanne, de Gas, Hopper,
and more American and European artists all had work on
(00:45):
exhibition at the sixty nine Regiment Armory on Lexington Avenue
and Street. It was all part of the International Exhibition
of Modern Art, or what came to be known simply
as the Armory Show. More than twelve hundred artworks by
(01:05):
around three hundred artists were on display in New York City.
It's easy to recognize these names now, and we'd consider
their work valuable, but back in the early nineteen hundreds,
the cultural distance between the United States and Europe was
far greater. The American art scene looked nothing like the
(01:27):
European art scene at the time, while art in Europe
was getting pretty risky. Think Cubism, futurism and abstract sculpture.
Art in America was still stuck within pretty rigid boundaries.
More realistic art, like that of the Old Masters, was
still popular in the States, and the people who could
(01:48):
afford to collect art were acquiring new pieces to affirm
their status. The National Academy of Design, a rather traditional
arts organization, acted as a kind of gatekeeper in the
New York City art world, only letting in the artists
whose work stayed in an acceptable lane of idealism. But
(02:10):
there were artists who refused to accept the stifling of
experimentation and American art. In nineteen eleven, artists Jerome Myers,
Elmer MacRae wal Kon, and Henry fitz Taylor started meeting
at Madison Gallery in New York to discuss forming a
society that would help young artists exhibit their work in America.
(02:34):
By the end of the year, the four artists banded
together with other artists to form the Association of American
Painters and Sculptors, a blatantly anti Academy group whose goal
was to exhibit, quote the works of progressive and live painters,
both American and foreign, favoring such work usually neglected by
(02:56):
current shows and especially interesting and instructive to the public.
So Walt Con, the organization's president, Arthur Bowen Davies and
artist Walter Pack combed Europe looking for artworks to take
back across the pond. They found hundreds of works, and
Davies and Coon arrived back in New York near the
(03:18):
end of nineteen twelve, and in America, the Association had
been gathering the works of artists like Albert Pinkman, writer
Edith DeMott, Marston Hartley, and Ethel Myers. There was no
jury for the exhibition, unlike the Academy shows. In December,
(03:38):
the association sent out a call for artists to submit
works in any medium. Here's a line from that circular.
The Association particularly desires to encourage all artwork that is
produced for the pleasure that the producer finds and carrying
it out. They didn't take all the submissions, but they
did take a lot. Alector John Quinn set the following
(04:02):
at the show's opening. The members of this association have
shown you that American artists, young American artists that is,
do not dread and have no need to dread, the
ideas are culture of Europe. They believe that in the
domain of art, only the best should rule. This exhibition
(04:23):
will be epoch making in the history of American art.
On the night it opened, the exhibition attracted four thousand guests,
but as you could imagine, people had wildly mixed reactions,
ranging from the utterly disgusted to the highly enamored. The
show basically went the early twentieth century version of viral
(04:46):
do Schamp's cubist painting Nude descending a staircase, particularly have
people in a tizzy. The magazine Art News offered readers
ten dollars if they could figure out what it meant.
One cred it said it looked like an explosion in
a shingle factory. Another said it's looked like an academic
painting of an artichoke. In general, reviewers questioned whether the
(05:11):
so called progressive work could really even be considered art.
All that said, the show had a ton of fans.
Before the Armory Show was over in New York and
headed to Chicago for its next run, it pulled in
eight seven thousand visitors. Change wouldn't happen immediately. The show
(05:32):
made many American artists feel like they had license to
experiment while others weren't so sure of the longevity of
the new art styles. Galleries started carrying more modern and
contemporary art, though they favored European artworks, and the show
did open up conversations about art that had previously been
(05:54):
limited to the elite. The art world in America was
headed for an upheaval, and the kind of art that
was considered good was about to broaden drastically, and the
show did open up conversations about art that had previously
been limited to the elite. I'm Eve Steff Coote, and
hopefully you know a little more about history today than
(06:17):
you did yesterday. As I was researching this episode, I
was just thinking about how this whole event would cause
a lot of Twitter madness today, Like even people who
stuck up for the artwork at the show had to
take some heat. The Chicago Tribune even published this poem
(06:38):
I called the canvas cow with could and hung it
on the line. Although to me twas vague as mud
twas clear to Gertrude's die Catch you tomorrow for another episode.
Hi everyone, I'm Eaves, and you're listening to This Day
(06:59):
in History Class, a podcast where we build the time
machine and all you have to do is hop in.
The day was February seventeenth, eighteen thirty eight. The Zulu
massacre of four Trekkers in Quasalu Natal resulted in the
(07:19):
death of hundreds of people. The Zulu are a Bantu
ethnic group made up of people who live mostly in
the province of Quasulu Natal. The Zulu were known for
being efficient and skilled warriors, and their kingdom grew significantly
under the leadership of Shaka in the early nineteenth century.
Shaka was assassinated in eight His brother dan Gone then
(07:43):
took the throne. Dn Gon was king at the time
of the massacre. Four Trekkers were Boers who took part
in the Great Trek, a migration of the Dutch and
their descendants from the British Cape Colony into the interior
of present day South Africa starting in eighteen thirty four war.
The Four Trekkers sought land and colonization and looked to
(08:04):
get away from British rule. As they did so, they
came into conflict with indigenous people living in the places
they were invading. In the eighteen thirty seven four Trekker
Pete Retif met with Dingan to negotiate a land deal.
Dingan may have agreed to grant him land providing the
four Trekkers retrieve a herd of cattle that was stolen.
(08:25):
He also may have required the boers to recover the
cattle before he agreed to any deal. Retif ended up
finding the cattle and bringing back some of the herd
to Dingan in early eighteen thirty eight. It's unclear exactly why,
but dan Gon ordered the Zulus to kill Retief and
the rest of his party. Following this massacre, ding Gon
(08:46):
sent a group of armed men or MPs to kill
the rest of the four Trekkers, who were camped out
nearby at sites along the Bushman River. The Zulus killed
more than two hundred four Trekkers and around two hundred
and fifty people of their ethnic groups who accompanied the
four trekkers, according to estimates. The town of Venin, a
Dutch word for webbed, was established months after the massacre.
(09:10):
Through the rest of the year, the Zulus continued to
clash with the four Trekkers. The four Trekers responded to
the massacre with the raid against the Zulu, but they
were attacked by Zulu warriors at If Leni. Continued conflict
led to the Battle of Blood River on December six,
eight thirty eight. Andre's pratorious led the four Trekker forces
(09:31):
into Zulu land for the battles. The Voortrekers were way outnumbered,
with hundreds of them versus and estimated tens of thousands
of Zulu warriors, but the Four Trekkers won the battle
and soon proclaimed the short lived Natalia Republic. DNA's brother
Ponde sided with the Four Trekkers and garnered the ally
ship of thousands of imps to overtake Dangan. A civil
(09:55):
war broke out within the Zulu nation, with the joint
forces of Ponde in notorious Dingan was overthrown. The Zulu
king fled but was soon assassinated. Ponde sided with an
Italia Republic until it was annexed by the British in
eighteen forty three. At that point, Ponde allied with the British.
(10:16):
Bowers began celebrating December six as Dingan's Day after the
Battle of Blood River, then as Day of the Valve.
The public holiday was later renamed the Day of Reconciliation.
I'm eves Deafcote and hopefully you know a little more
about history today than you did yesterday. You can find
(10:36):
us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at t d i
h C Podcast, and you can email us at this
Day at i heart media dot com. I hope you
enjoyed today's episode. We'll be back tomorrow with another one.
(10:59):
For more podcast from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hey, y'all, Eve's here. We're doubling up today with two
events in history on with the show Welcome to this
Day in History class, where we bring you a new
tidbid from history every day. The day was February nineteen.
(00:25):
More than twelve hundred artworks by around three hundred artists
were on display in New York City. Matisse, go Again,
du Schamp, Kathleen mccinnery, Picasso, much Cezanne, de Gas, Hopper,
and more American and European artists all had work on
(00:45):
exhibition at the sixty nine Regiment Armory on Lexington Avenue
and Street. It was all part of the International Exhibition
of Modern Art, or what came to be known simply
as the Armory Show. More than twelve hundred artworks by
(01:05):
around three hundred artists were on display in New York City.
It's easy to recognize these names now, and we'd consider
their work valuable, but back in the early nineteen hundreds,
the cultural distance between the United States and Europe was
far greater. The American art scene looked nothing like the
(01:27):
European art scene at the time, while art in Europe
was getting pretty risky. Think Cubism, futurism and abstract sculpture.
Art in America was still stuck within pretty rigid boundaries.
More realistic art, like that of the Old Masters, was
still popular in the States, and the people who could
(01:48):
afford to collect art were acquiring new pieces to affirm
their status. The National Academy of Design, a rather traditional
arts organization, acted as a kind of gatekeeper in the
New York City art world, only letting in the artists
whose work stayed in an acceptable lane of idealism. But
(02:10):
there were artists who refused to accept the stifling of
experimentation and American art. In nineteen eleven, artists Jerome Myers,
Elmer MacRae wal Kon, and Henry fitz Taylor started meeting
at Madison Gallery in New York to discuss forming a
society that would help young artists exhibit their work in America.
(02:34):
By the end of the year, the four artists banded
together with other artists to form the Association of American
Painters and Sculptors, a blatantly anti Academy group whose goal
was to exhibit, quote the works of progressive and live painters,
both American and foreign, favoring such work usually neglected by
(02:56):
current shows and especially interesting and instructive to the public.
So Walt Con, the organization's president, Arthur Bowen Davies and
artist Walter Pack combed Europe looking for artworks to take
back across the pond. They found hundreds of works, and
Davies and Coon arrived back in New York near the
(03:18):
end of nineteen twelve, and in America, the Association had
been gathering the works of artists like Albert Pinkman, writer
Edith DeMott, Marston Hartley, and Ethel Myers. There was no
jury for the exhibition, unlike the Academy shows. In December,
(03:38):
the association sent out a call for artists to submit
works in any medium. Here's a line from that circular.
The Association particularly desires to encourage all artwork that is
produced for the pleasure that the producer finds and carrying
it out. They didn't take all the submissions, but they
did take a lot. Alector John Quinn set the following
(04:02):
at the show's opening. The members of this association have
shown you that American artists, young American artists that is,
do not dread and have no need to dread, the
ideas are culture of Europe. They believe that in the
domain of art, only the best should rule. This exhibition
(04:23):
will be epoch making in the history of American art.
On the night it opened, the exhibition attracted four thousand guests,
but as you could imagine, people had wildly mixed reactions,
ranging from the utterly disgusted to the highly enamored. The
show basically went the early twentieth century version of viral
(04:46):
do Schamp's cubist painting Nude descending a staircase, particularly have
people in a tizzy. The magazine Art News offered readers
ten dollars if they could figure out what it meant.
One cred it said it looked like an explosion in
a shingle factory. Another said it's looked like an academic
painting of an artichoke. In general, reviewers questioned whether the
(05:11):
so called progressive work could really even be considered art.
All that said, the show had a ton of fans.
Before the Armory Show was over in New York and
headed to Chicago for its next run, it pulled in
eight seven thousand visitors. Change wouldn't happen immediately. The show
(05:32):
made many American artists feel like they had license to
experiment while others weren't so sure of the longevity of
the new art styles. Galleries started carrying more modern and
contemporary art, though they favored European artworks, and the show
did open up conversations about art that had previously been
(05:54):
limited to the elite. The art world in America was
headed for an upheaval, and the kind of art that
was considered good was about to broaden drastically, and the
show did open up conversations about art that had previously
been limited to the elite. I'm Eve Steff Coote, and
hopefully you know a little more about history today than
(06:17):
you did yesterday. As I was researching this episode, I
was just thinking about how this whole event would cause
a lot of Twitter madness today, Like even people who
stuck up for the artwork at the show had to
take some heat. The Chicago Tribune even published this poem
(06:38):
I called the canvas cow with could and hung it
on the line. Although to me twas vague as mud
twas clear to Gertrude's die Catch you tomorrow for another episode.
Hi everyone, I'm Eaves, and you're listening to This Day
(06:59):
in History Class, a podcast where we build the time
machine and all you have to do is hop in.
The day was February seventeenth, eighteen thirty eight. The Zulu
massacre of four Trekkers in Quasalu Natal resulted in the
(07:19):
death of hundreds of people. The Zulu are a Bantu
ethnic group made up of people who live mostly in
the province of Quasulu Natal. The Zulu were known for
being efficient and skilled warriors, and their kingdom grew significantly
under the leadership of Shaka in the early nineteenth century.
Shaka was assassinated in eight His brother dan Gone then
(07:43):
took the throne. Dn Gon was king at the time
of the massacre. Four Trekkers were Boers who took part
in the Great Trek, a migration of the Dutch and
their descendants from the British Cape Colony into the interior
of present day South Africa starting in eighteen thirty four war.
The Four Trekkers sought land and colonization and looked to
(08:04):
get away from British rule. As they did so, they
came into conflict with indigenous people living in the places
they were invading. In the eighteen thirty seven four Trekker
Pete Retif met with Dingan to negotiate a land deal.
Dingan may have agreed to grant him land providing the
four Trekkers retrieve a herd of cattle that was stolen.
(08:25):
He also may have required the boers to recover the
cattle before he agreed to any deal. Retif ended up
finding the cattle and bringing back some of the herd
to Dingan in early eighteen thirty eight. It's unclear exactly why,
but dan Gon ordered the Zulus to kill Retief and
the rest of his party. Following this massacre, ding Gon
(08:46):
sent a group of armed men or MPs to kill
the rest of the four Trekkers, who were camped out
nearby at sites along the Bushman River. The Zulus killed
more than two hundred four Trekkers and around two hundred
and fifty people of their ethnic groups who accompanied the
four trekkers, according to estimates. The town of Venin, a
Dutch word for webbed, was established months after the massacre.
(09:10):
Through the rest of the year, the Zulus continued to
clash with the four Trekkers. The four Trekers responded to
the massacre with the raid against the Zulu, but they
were attacked by Zulu warriors at If Leni. Continued conflict
led to the Battle of Blood River on December six,
eight thirty eight. Andre's pratorious led the four Trekker forces
(09:31):
into Zulu land for the battles. The Voortrekers were way outnumbered,
with hundreds of them versus and estimated tens of thousands
of Zulu warriors, but the Four Trekkers won the battle
and soon proclaimed the short lived Natalia Republic. DNA's brother
Ponde sided with the Four Trekkers and garnered the ally
ship of thousands of imps to overtake Dangan. A civil
(09:55):
war broke out within the Zulu nation, with the joint
forces of Ponde in notorious Dingan was overthrown. The Zulu
king fled but was soon assassinated. Ponde sided with an
Italia Republic until it was annexed by the British in
eighteen forty three. At that point, Ponde allied with the British.
(10:16):
Bowers began celebrating December six as Dingan's Day after the
Battle of Blood River, then as Day of the Valve.
The public holiday was later renamed the Day of Reconciliation.
I'm eves Deafcote and hopefully you know a little more
about history today than you did yesterday. You can find
(10:36):
us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at t d i
h C Podcast, and you can email us at this
Day at i heart media dot com. I hope you
enjoyed today's episode. We'll be back tomorrow with another one.
(10:59):
For more podcast from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
This Day in History Class News
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