“Severini’s 1917 Exhibition at Stieglitz’s ‘291’.”
Joan M. Lukach. "Severini's 1917 Exhibition at Stieglitz's '291'." The Burlington Magazine, April, 1971, pages 196-203 illustrated
The article describes the origin of the exhibition, as Marius de Zayas suggests to Alfred Stieglitz that “futurism... this kind of work which nobody really knows in New York” would make an effective exhibition for Stieglitz’s Gallery 291. Some reviews are quoted, then all mention disappears with the U.S. entrance into World War I. However, half the works in the exhibition were sold, and Stieglitz sent Severini a check. Probably hoping the rest would also sell, Severini did not request their return, and they were eventually dispersed from the Stieglitz estate by his widow Georgia O’Keeffe to various U.S. museums. This was an important moment for Severini, which he carefully documented for the U.S. exhibition, setting forth his progress from dynamic Futurist action, to his “plastic analogies” series such as the masterful “Dancer-Helix-Sea” of 1915 now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY. In the new works from 1916 recognizable forms begin to appear, as Severini seeks “universal dynamism” not in a subject such as dancers but in the pictorial process, the arrangement of lines and colors.