A rich dialogue between the circle of artists associated with American photographer Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946) and French artist Marcel duchamp (1887-1968) spurred the development of modern art in the United States between 1915 and 1929. During World War I many European artists, including Duchamp, left their homelands bound for New York, a metropolis thriving with industrial and technological advancement. Skyscrapers, telephones, and automobiles wee altering the course of daily life at a dizzying speed while equally significant changes were transforming the social arena, particularly in he realm of sexual politics. Sigmund Freud's and Havelock Ellis's theories of sexuality garnered widespread interest during these years, as did the subject of equality between the sexes and the struggle for woman suffrage. The lively debate between the artists associated with Stieglitz and Duchamp ensued against this backdrop of sweeping societal and cultural change.

As curator Debra Bricker Balken writes in the exhibition catalogue, the debates between the artists in the Stieglitz and Duchamp camps had far-reaching results. "The impact, as history has revealed, was simultaneously subtle and trenchant, reshaping the formal languages and content of American art with the ironic result that it finally attained the originality and cultural singularity that Duchamp had found sorely missing."

For more information about Duchamp and O'Keeffe see:
O'Keeffe, Georgia. Georgia O'Keeffe: Arts and Letters. Ed. Jack Cowart et al. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1987.

Tomkins, Calvin. Marcel duchamp: A Biography. New York: Henry Hold and Company, 1996