Indelible (Armory Show). 1913–2013 is a series of ink drawings, each bearing the name of one of the fifty women who participated in the 1913 Armory Show in New York. An adjective, indelible denotes a physical, material, and conceptual permanence; it describes a mark that cannot be removed and an idea that cannot be forgotten. The Armory Show in 1913 was the first exhibition assembled by the American Association of Painters and Sculptors (AAPS). Many women contributed to this effort to present avant-garde art, not only by participating as artists but also by sponsoring fellow artists (as did Mary Cassatt, for example), encouraging the sale of works, and purchasing works. Katherine S. Dreier participated as both artist and patron. Some women named in this series, such as Dreier and Cassatt, are well known; others, such as Amy Londoner and Agnes Pelton, are less familiar. Some, such as Mrs. Thomas Hunt, are identified only through the names of their husbands. Geyer employed the same materials, formal treatment, and procedure to make each drawing, brushing ink over the slippery vellum surface. Using a wide brush, she covered almost the entire surface of the vellum in an economical three to five strokes, leaving a thin translucent border. She then used rubber stamps to imprint the names of women into the wet ink. Sitting atop the paper instead of being absorbed into it, the liquid was subject to blurring and shifting before drying and hardening. The contours of the rubber stamps appear both negatively and positively on the dried surface. The names are thus legibly suspended within the surface of the ink. The drawings in the Indelible (Armory Show). 1913–2013 series are individually framed and can be shown on their own or in groups arranged in a grid. The entire series hangs in five rows of ten drawings.
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