In 1913, the International Exhibition of Modern Art of 1913, popularly known as the Armory Show, brought modern art to America. The most highly publicized American cultural event of all time, the exhibition changed the face of art in the United States. As the media rained scorn, derision, fear, praise, hope, and simple curiosity on the Armory Show, the American public looked on modernism for the first time and went home to think about what they had seen. America would never be the same.

In 1911, sixteen young New York artists who had studied in Europe formed the Association of American Painters and Sculptors (AAPS). Their goal was to challenge the stranglehold of such mainstream art organizations as the National Academy of Design, a conservative group who held the first and last word on American art and American taste. Having been exposed to the avant-garde art being produced in...