![]() ![]() They have culled documents of the times as well as artifacts from the historical salons, from wine glasses and furniture to letters and artwork. Bilski and Emily Braun, have struggled admirably to bring these fabled spaces to life. A good salon, like a good dinner party, is the most fleeting of achievements, and precisely the qualities that made salons so memorable - the conversations, the bons mots, the musical performances, the very ambience itself - disappeared the moment the guests went home. The reasons go beyond the obvious social norms that limited their public activities. Some of the featured salonnières are already well known, like Gertrude Stein, whose "at-homes" on 27 rue de Fleurus were a site of pilgrimage for art lovers hoping to snatch a glimpse of provocative new work, and for snooty Parisians to see, in the words of one chronicler, "the incredible trash the two gullible Americans had hung on their walls."īut most hostesses profiled in this show are, like Zuckerkandl, fascinating figures little remembered today. The new exhibition focuses on 14 such women whose salons ranged in date (from the late-18th through the mid-20th centuries), in location (Berlin, Vienna, London, Paris, Rome, New York and Los Angeles) and in the dominant interests of their guests (politics, art, literature and music). If this was true for women in general, it was especially so for Jewish women, who were doubly marginalized in their societies on the basis of both gender and faith. 18th vienna secession exhibition free#They were places where ideas could be debated, new art, literature and music were consumed, and spirited discussion of politics could take place free of the influence of the court. In the 18th century, salons became incubators of an emerging public sphere. They were certainly a continuing fixture of European high society, beginning in 17th-century France, when the Marquise de Rambouillet broke with the traditions of the court and invited guests to gather at her home. ![]() "The Power of Conversation: Jewish Women and Their Salons" calls these gatherings nothing less than "central to the development of modernity." But as an engaging new exhibition opening today at the Jewish Museum suggests, the story of salons is much more than just tails and top hats, play and repartee. The atmosphere of the grand salon has long been mythologized with its witty banter and star-studded guest lists. "On my divan," she once said, "Austria comes alive."Īt the same time, divans and the salonnières who reigned over them were bringing life to culture and politics in capitals across Europe. They all came to her home for one of the liveliest salons of late 19th-century Vienna, credited by one guest as the birthplace of the Vienna Secession. Her name was Berta Zuckerkandl, an art critic and champion of Viennese modernism, a name whose obscurity today contrasts sharply with the enduring fame of many who gathered around her: Gustav Klimt, Auguste Rodin, Maurice Ravel, Arthur Schnitzler and Hugo von Hofmannsthal, to name a few. "Hail to the most marvelous and witty woman in Vienna," exclaimed the waltz king, Johann Strauss, one day, falling to his knees before the subject of his admiration. ![]()
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