Make Way for Berthe Weill: Art Dealer of the Parisian Avant-Garde

Organized by Grey Art Museum, NYU

Who, you may ask, was Berthe Weill? From 1901 to 1941 this trailblazing art dealer unstintingly exhibited works by emerging artists—les Jeunes, she called them—in her Parisian gallery. Even though many of those whose work she promoted became key avant-garde figures, Weill (pronounced “vay”) and her crucial role in early 20th-century modernism have been omitted from most historical accounts. Make Way for Berthe Weill sets the record straight.

Passionate, outspoken, and visionary, Weill remained unwavering in her devotion to cutting-edge, contemporary art. She was the first to sell works by Pablo Picasso and to exhibit Henri Matisse, and she organized Amedeo Modigliani’s only show during his lifetime. In addition to championing fledgling Fauves and Cubists, she supported numerous women artists, including Suzanne Valadon, Émilie Charmy, and Alice Halicka. She stood apart from her male counterparts—such as Ambroise Vollard, Paul Durand-Ruel, and Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler—not only in her class and gender, but in her willingness to gamble on unknown talent and in her disdain for contracts.

Weill was born in 1865 in Paris to an Alsatian Jewish family of very modest means. In her early teens, she apprenticed with Salvator Mayer, a prints and antiques dealer whose shop was located in the heart of the gallery district. At the age of 36, she opened the Galerie B. Weill with a business card that read “Place aux Jeunes,” or “Make way for the young.” Eventually moving three more times, Weill also sold books, prints, and antiques to pay the rent. In 1941 she was forced to close during the Nazi occupation of Paris. Managing to avoid deportation, Weill emerged impoverished and in poor health after the war. She died in 1951 at the age of 85.

Installed thematically, some 110 works—including paintings, drawings, prints, and sculpture—by the artists she exhibited, alongside a selection of archival objects, create a compelling portrait of a pioneering figure. Make Way for Berthe Weill highlights the influence of this outlier and risk-taker, while revealing the sexism, antisemitism, and economic struggles she faced in a competitive art market. In her cheekily titled memoir, Pow! Right in the Eye!, published in 1933, Weill observed: “I’ve had disappointments, but also many joys, and despite the obstacles, have created an occupation for myself that I thoroughly enjoy. On balance, I should consider myself lucky . . . and I do!”

Curators

The exhibition’s curatorial team includes Lynn Gumpert, Director of the Grey Art Museum (1997–2025); Marianne Le Morvan, founder of the Berthe Weill Archives in Paris; Anne Grace, curator of modern art at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts; and Sophie Eloy, collections administrator and coordinator of the Contrepoints installations at the Musée de l’Orangerie.

Tour

After its debut at the Grey, the exhibition will tour to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts from May 10 to September 7, 2025, and to the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris from October 8, 2025 to January 26, 2026.