Book cover: Pow! Right in the Eye! Thirty Years Behind the Scenes of Modern French Painting. 2022, designed by Jill Shimabukuro (inspired by the original French edition, written by Berthe Weill, and published in 1933).
Attended a fantastic conversation the other night between Lynn, Gumpert, Director of the Grey Art Gallery and Veronique Burke, Co-Founder of Women Art Dealers Digital Archives at the Pen + Brush Gallery in the Flatiron. The rich discussion was centered on the inextricable life and work of the the provocative Parisian art dealer Berthe Weill (1865-1951).
Small but mighty, the under 5 ft. tall, bespectacled Berthe, who rose from a background of poverty and had to battle both the anti-semistism and misogyny rampant in her day, was nevertheless a formidable force in the field for over 40 + years. Committed to championing “les jeunes” (the new artists), she suported and helped shape the early careers of Picasso, Modigliani (who didn’t really have a late period since he died at the age of 35) and several women artists, including Suzanne Valadon.
The occasion for the POWarts-sponsored event was this year’s release of the newly-translated version of Weill’s punchy 1933 memoir Pow! Right in the Eye! (edited by Gumpert and masterfully translated by William Rodarmor). As you can imagine the evening’s presentation was lively, full of familiar art and some surprises, and the terrific anecdotes were flying.
What a treat to dig into this topic and to learn more about this scrappy, dedicated and daring figure at the heart of the 20th century art world with two experts. And, even more exciting to discover that the Grey Art gallery in NYC will host an exhibition about Berthe Weill and her stable of artists in 2024 (it was supposed to open in 2022 to coincide with the new publication, but was postponed because of the pandemic). The show will travel to venues in Montreal and Paris as well. In the meantime, everyone should grab Berthe’s memoir, like we did. You’ll be thoroughly entertained and gain a whole new perspective on French modernism and bohemian culture from a woman on the inside!