291

291 was an internationally famous avant-garde art gallery located at 291 Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, operating from 1905 to 1917. Originally established as the Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession, it was managed by photographer Alfred Stieglitz. The gallery is recognized for two major achievements: elevating art photography to the same critical stature as painting and sculpture in the United States, and introducing the European avant-garde to the American public. It served as a laboratory and experimental station for aesthetic principles, becoming the first American foothold for modern art across all media.

At the beginning of the 20th century, photography's status in the fine art world was indefinite, with exhibitions typically judged by painters and sculptors. After failing to reform the New York Camera Club, Stieglitz organized the 1902 Photo-Secession exhibition, judged solely by photographers, and launched the journal Camera Work. In late 1904, his leadership was challenged when Curtis Bell organized the First American Photographic Salon, judged by prominent painters. Seeking a definitive platform, Stieglitz partnered with Edward Steichen, who had noticed vacant rooms across from his studio. In the summer of 1905, Stieglitz signed a lease for three small rooms, and the gallery opened on November 24, 1905, with an exhibition of Photo-Secessionists. Initially focused on pictorialism, the gallery expanded to show modern art after Steichen moved to Paris. By 1908, facing higher rent, Stieglitz renamed the space 291. The gallery reached its peak relevance between 1908 and 1913, but lost momentum during World War I, closing in June 1917, two months after the United States declared war on Germany.

The gallery's scope evolved from championing pictorialist photography to encompassing European modernism, African art, and emerging American painters. Early exhibitions focused on photographers like those in the Photo-Secession, including displays of the gum bichromate process and the first American exhibition of autochrome photographs in 1907. By 1907, the gallery expanded into non-photographic media with drawings by Pamela Coleman Smith. Stieglitz soon presented the American debuts for key European modernists. After 1913, concurrent with the Armory Show, Stieglitz ceased hanging photography at 291, with the exception of Paul Strand's prints in 1916, and shifted focus to a new generation of American modernists. The gallery also published the magazine 291 from 1915 to 1916, releasing twelve issues that fostered pre-Dadaist and New York Dada tendencies.

291 presented the first American exhibitions of works by Henri Matisse, Auguste Rodin, Paul Cezanne, Pablo Picasso, and Constantin Brancusi. Rodin's drawings and watercolors were shown in 1908, Matisse's paintings in 1908 and sculptures in 1912, Cezanne's lithographs in 1910 and a solo show in 1911, and Picasso's first solo American exhibition in 1911. The gallery also exhibited Henri Rousseau, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Marcel Duchamp, and the Dadaist Francis Picabia. Pioneering artistic photographers exhibited included Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, Alvin Langdon Coburn, Gertrude Kasebier, and Clarence H. White. Stieglitz championed American painters John Marin, Marsden Hartley, Arthur Dove, and Georgia O'Keeffe. A notable visual document of the space is Edward Steichen's 1915 gum bichromate over platinum print portrait of Alfred Stieglitz at 291.

The gallery was located on the fifth floor of a four-story neoclassical brownstone building constructed around 1870, situated on the east side of Fifth Avenue between 30th and 31st Streets. The building featured a prominent parapet or attica at the flat roofline and bay windows on the first and second floors. It shared a hallway and a small elevator with the adjacent building at 293 Fifth Avenue. Steichen, who lived in the 291 studio before moving to 293, designed the gallery's three intimate rooms. The largest room measured 4.50 by 5.10 meters, the middle room 4.50 by 4.50 meters, and the narrowest 4.50 by 2.50 meters. The decor utilized matte olive tones, olive-gray jute wallpaper, olive-green silk satin wall hangings, and a deep cream-gray ceiling, while the small room was finished in bleached natural sacking and pure white woodwork to suit prints in white mounts. The buildings were demolished in 1935 and replaced by new constructions.

The original gallery space at 291 Fifth Avenue no longer exists, as the building was demolished in 1935. Today, the site is occupied by newer constructions. The legacy of the gallery is preserved through institutional archives and collections. The Art Institute of Chicago maintains records detailing the history of the Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession. The Metropolitan Museum of Art holds original photographs from the era, including the Alfred Stieglitz Collection acquired in 1933. Additionally, the Philadelphia Museum of Art hosted the 1944 exhibition History of an American: Alfred Stieglitz 291 and After, which documented the gallery's circle, including caricatures by Marius de Zayas titled The Bunch at 291.