Fellow artist Marius de Zayas, and moneyed enthusiasts Agnes Meyer, and Paul Haviland suggested a new magazine that would revitalize the “sturdy Islet of enduring independence in the besetting seas of Commercialism and Convention.” (Whelan, 337) The magazine 291 was an idealistic attempt to revitalize the dying scene at 291.

Selling only about one hundred copies of both the regular and deluxe (printed on Japanese vellum paper) subscriptions, the four to six page 291 gave away (sixty) almost as many copies as it sold. The lack of sales combined with sometimes out of control Dadaist principles amounted to “nothing more than an experiment, and a means to give de Zayas, Mrs. Meyer, Katharine Rhoades, and some others a chance to experiment" (Leavens 128).

While it lasted only a year, and was seen by many as a failed elitist experiment, 291 met its own goals. However insular and irresponsible it may have been, 291 sought to "weld together the plastic and the literary arts" (Abrahams 194) and suceeded. A forum for avant garde photography, literature, and art, 291 extended the notion of the gallery to include all forms of art on equal levels.

Compiled by Alexander Camp Entrekin (Class of '06, Davidson College)