WASHINGTON ,
Dec. 3, 2012
/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Postal Service celebrates 12
important modern artists and their works on Forever stamps in early
March, 100 years after the groundbreaking Armory Show opened in
New York City in 1913, giving many
Americans their first look at modern art.
Customers may pre-order the Modern Art in America Forever
stamps at usps.com/stamps or by phone at 800-Stamp24
(800-782-6724) for delivery a few days following the issuance of
the stamps.
The dozen masterpieces reproduced on the stamp pane were
created between 1912 and 1931 and include House and Street
(1931), Stuart Davis; I Saw the
Figure 5 in Gold (1928), Charles
Demuth; The Prodigal Son (1927), Aaron Douglas; Fog Horns (1929),
Arthur Dove; Nude Descending a
Staircase, No. 2 (1912), Marcel
Duchamp; Painting, Number 5 (1914-15), Marsden Hartley; Sunset, Maine Coast (1919), John Marin; Razor (1924), Gerald Murphy; Black Mesa Landscape,
New Mexico / Out Back of Marie's
II (1930), Georgia O'Keeffe; Noire et Blanche (1926),
Man Ray; American Landscape
(1930), Charles Sheeler; and
Brooklyn Bridge (1919-20), Joseph
Stella. The stamp pane also includes a quote by Marcel Duchamp and verso text that identifies
each work of art and briefly tells something about each
artist.
The International Exhibition of Modern Art, known as the
Armory Show, opened in New York
City on Feb. 17, 1913. This
watershed exhibit, held at the 69th Regiment Armory on Lexington
Avenue at 25th Street, presented more than a thousand works, about
a third of them by European artists.
At the Armory Show, Duchamp's Nude Descending a
Staircase, No. 2 excited derision as well as admiration.
Duchamp and other European painters greatly influenced American
artists, including those who created the works shown on this stamp
pane. Like Duchamp, who became a U.S. citizen, modern art — and
modernity itself — soon found a congenial home in
America.
Modern art's greatest promoter in America during this
period was Alfred Stieglitz, the
photographer and gallery owner. Stieglitz championed the era's
greatest painters and photographers, including many of the artists
shown on this stamp pane. His own work was represented on the
Masters of American Photography stamp pane issued in
2002.
Customers may view the Modern Art in America Forever
stamps, as well as many of next year's other stamps on Facebook at
facebook.com/USPSStamps, on Twitter
@USPSstamps or on the website Beyond the
Perf at beyondtheperf.com/2013-preview. Beyond the
Perf is the Postal Service's online site for information on
upcoming stamp subjects, first-day-of-issue events and other
philatelic news.
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expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services
to fund its operations.
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Postal Service number one in overall service performance of the
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SOURCE U.S. Postal Service