Minneapolis Institute of Arts Exhibition Preview 2 Abstraction,
1917 Figure in Black, 1918 Lake George, Coat and Red, 1919  When
the International Exhibition of Modern Art (now commonly known
as the Armory Show) opened in New York in 1913, it provided
American audiences with a controversial, highly publicized
introduction to the latest trends in modern art-in particular
the bold advances of European movements such as Fauvism, Cubism,
and Futurism. Only a few American artists had begun to
experiment with abstraction prior to the Armory Show, but the
show's impact was so great that many more chose to do so in its
wake.  To understand fully just how distinctive O'Keeffe's
abstractions were, it is informative to compare them with
paintings by some of her contemporaries. Most lack the organic
fluidity of O'Keeffe's compositions; circular forms are not used
as often or as inventively. Marsden Hartley, for example,
created a colorful symbolic language to express his feelings
about America and his recently deceased f