![]() ![]() Shutting the show proved a hollow victory. Comstock took the bait, seeing it "as part of this broader movement for women's rights, and specifically the birth control movement, which was his major target," says Whalen. Whalen thinks Tice quite deliberately wanted to frame her work in this radical context. Polly's, decorated in bright Fauvist colours, was an artwork in its own right and attracted an eclectic clientele of artists and activists who discussed everything from access to birth control to the latest developments in art, philosophy and politics. Tice had obtained instant notoriety when a 1914 exhibition of her nudes at Polly's had been shut down by Anthony Comstock, a puritanical anti-vice campaigner. "She had this instinctual understanding of the rhythm of modern life which she expressed through her work in a very physical way," says Whalen. Her illustrations of stylish women dancing, driving or playing sport with unabashed pleasure graced the pages of Vogue and Vanity Fair. The first woman in the Village to bob her hair, she dressed in scandalously short dresses, frequently of her own design, or horse-riding ensembles accessorised with thigh-high boots. Greenwich's undisputed bohemian queen was the artist Clara Tice. Greenwich was home to radical cafés such as Polly's, run by the anarchist Paula "Polly" Holladay and innovative little magazines such as Rogue, which drew together some of the most intriguing creative talents of the era. Many of the women caught up in this new spirit gravitated towards Greenwich Village, nicknamed the "Smock Colony," in reference to the flowing garments favoured by its female inhabitants. It didn't have that kind of infrastructure to develop young artists, like the salons in Paris," explains Whalen. "There was a lack of expertise and even interest in modern art. At the time New York might have been indisputably modern in terms of technology and industry, but when it came to art and culture it was lagging far behind Europe. This restless energy coincided with a new awareness of what art could be in the aftermath of 1913's groundbreaking Armory Show, which had introduced modern art to a somewhat bewildered US public. 25 of the best books of the year so far The shocking memoir of the Lost Generation "Women in particular didn't want to live the same lives as their mothers… they wanted to be active participants in all aspects of life," she says. Everyone from trade unionists to anarchists were agitating for more rights and looking for new ways of living. They "were harnessing a restless energy sweeping across both the US and Europe in the early 20th Century," Whalen tells BBC Culture. As artists, writers, salon hosts and patrons they passionately embraced new forms of living, loving and creating. In Radicals and Rogues: The women who made New York modern, the writer and researcher Lottie Whalen reveals that its transformation in the early decades of the 20th Century was largely thanks to a bold, taboo-busting cohort of women who pushed boundaries both creatively and socially. New York is undoubtedly one of the most culturally vibrant cities in the world.
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