Live Course (Online)
Making Way for Berthe Weill, Art Dealer of the Parisian Avant-Garde
Presented by 92nd Street Y, hosted by Roundtable

This is a live, virtual course, presented by 92nd Street Y and hosted by Roundtable

Course overview

Berthe Weill was a pioneering art dealer who focused exclusively on emerging artists, including Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Diego Rivera, and Amedeo Modigliani. Operating her Parisian gallery from 1901 to 1941, she championed the works of avant-garde artists who would go on to become key figures in twentieth-century modernism. Despite her critical role, Weill’s contributions have often been overlooked in historical accounts of the period.

Weill’s memoir, Pow! Right in the Eye!, offers a raucous and often humorous account of the Parisian art world from 1900 to 1930. Passionate and outspoken, she was the first to sell works by Picasso, exhibit Matisse, and organize Modigliani’s only solo show during his lifetime. In addition, she supported emerging Fauves, Cubists, and numerous women artists.

Born in 1865 to a modest Alsatian Jewish family, Weill began her career in her teens, apprenticing with a print and antique dealer. At 36, she opened Galerie B. Weill, with a business card that read, “Make way for the young.” To support her gallery, she also sold books, prints, and antiques. During the Nazi occupation in 1941, she was forced to close the gallery. Although she narrowly avoided deportation, Weill emerged from the war impoverished and in poor health, passing away in 1951 at the age of 85.

In this course, Lynn Gumpert, co-curator of the first exhibition dedicated to Berthe Weill, provides an overview of this remarkable and underrecognized figure in the history of modern art.