Arbiters of taste: Women, modernism and the making of Paris

Abstract

The years 1870–1960 were a period of vibrant innovation in France when traditional ideas about art and living were challenged. At the turn of the twentieth century, Paris became the epicentre for creative risk, innovation and originality. The city both represented and became a ‘laboratory of culture’ that attracted individuals eager to ride the waves of modernism. What forces enabled Paris to become a site of such artistic vibrancy? What cultural labour was involved in propelling avant-gardism forwards? In this article, I introduce a few examples of women who played a vital role in the modernisation of the arts in Paris, the internationalisation of French artistic tastes, and the cultivation of Paris’s reputation as the centre of avant-gardism and artistic development. In doing so, I offer a new paradigm for understanding the art worlds of Paris in this period by revealing women as important and effective arbiters of taste.