50 women artists exhibited at the legendary 1913 Armory Show, uncovering women’s forgotten role in American modernism

The 1913 Armory Show, the legendary exhibition that introduced European modernism to America, holds a secret that art history has left in oblivion: around 50 women artists exhibited their works alongside the greatest masters of the time, reveals new analysis published on September 21, 2026.

Of the roughly 300 exhibitors and approximately 1,300 works shown from February 17 to March 15, 1913 at the 69th Regiment Armory building in New York, about 16.6% were women — 45 American and 5 European. It is a representation that surpasses many later exhibitions: by comparison, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) exhibition of 1984 included only 13 women out of 165 artists, a mere 7.9% that spurred the formation of the feminist collective Guerrilla Girls a year later.

“Today’s audiences are likely to be shocked to learn that there were women in a major exhibition in 1913, let alone 50,” says Katie Wat, deputy director and chief curator at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, adding that women have been forgotten by the Western art canon. Initially 30 women were invited, while 20 others applied and were accepted. The year 1913 was a major moment for women’s rights, with large marches and the battle for the vote in America.

Women’s financial and organizational support was essential to realizing the exhibition: 19 of the 24 principal backers were women, among them Lillie P. Bliss, the later co-founder of MoMA, artist and lawyer Katherine S. Dreier, philanthropist Mabel Dodge and gallerist Clara Davidge. Collectors Gertrude Stein and Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney lent and bought works from the exhibition. Co-organizer Walt Kuhn called the show America’s “Salon de Refusés.”

Among the exhibiting artists were Marguerite Zorach, Ethel Myers, Bessie Potter Vonnoh and Edith Dimock — many alongside their artist husbands — as well as Gwen John, Auguste Rodin’s model, whose works are today at MoMA; Florence Howell Barkley; Agnes Pelton, who had a major exhibition at the Whitney in 2020; and Marie Laurencin, whose works are held at MoMA, the Barnes, Tate, Musée de l’Orangerie and the Hermitage.

Many of these women have been forgotten by art history, although — as noted — many men on that list never became known either, in the shadow of masters like Monet, Goya and Matisse. The reassessment of women’s role in the Armory Show reopens the debate on the canon of American modernism and on the voice of those left out of it.

Source: Observer Arts (via USA Art News)