Society of Independent Artists, Kansas City

The Society of Independent Artists was organized in New York City in 1917 by a group of American and European artists. The founding idea was to hold an annual exhibition that had no jury and gave no prizes. Any artist could exhibit their work, as long as they paid the membership dues of the organization. The works were exhibited in alphabetical order by the artists’ last name. The first exhibition in 1917 was the most famous, because it was for this exhibition that  Marcel Duchamp entered his ready-made sculpture Fountain, and it was ultimately not exhibited. In the first exhibition, 2,500 works by 1,200 artists from 38 states were displayed.  In 1919, associate memberships to the SIA were begun.  In 1923, local societies were organized in Chicago, Buffalo and Boston. There also was a Society of Independent Artists group in Saint Louis, beginning in 1930. According to Clark S. Marlor,  in 1924 and 1925 the society named representatives in other U.S. cities to give information to artists and encourage them to exhibit in the annual exhibition. The representative in Kansas City, MO was Randell Davey, of the Kansas City Art Institute, and in St. Louis the representative was Mrs. Eloise L. Wells. Missouri artists who exhibited in these shows include Walter Bailey, Ross Braught, Ilah Marian Kibbey, Miriam McKinnie Hofmeier,  as well as several others.  In 1944, the last annual exhibition was held. In the years following, the Society wasn’t able to find a space to host the exhibition, so no further exhibitions were held.

Select Sources

Francis Naumann, “The Big Show: The First Exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists, Part II: The Critical Response,” ArtForum 17, no. 8 (April 1979): 49-53.

Francis Naumann, “The Big Show: The First Exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists, Part I,” ArtForum 17, no. 6 (February 1979): 34-39.

“The Society of Independent Artists at the Delaware Art Museum,” Magazine Antiques 184, no. 1 (January/February 2017): 40.

S. Marlor Clark, The Society of Independent Artists: The Exhibition Record, 1917-1944 (Park Ridge: Noyes Press, 1984), 1-52.

S. Marlor Clark, “A Quest for Independence: The Society of Independent Artists,” Art & Antiques 4, no. 2 (March/April 1981): 75-81.

Susan S. Weininger, "Society of Independent Artists," Grove Art Online (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003).

Contributors

Roberta Wagener, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

Record Published

Published on September 20, 2021