skuawk.com, March 2005

The Power of Conversation: Exploring women’s voice in art, music and much

By Marcos Bernal-Salas

Friday, March 4, 2005

The Jewish Museum presents The Power of Conversation: Jewish Women and their Salons from March 4 through July 10. A thoroughly and impressive exhibition that exposes Jewish women’s salons from 1780’s to 1930 and the overall influence that they had on art, music, literature and politics. People from different classes and opinions were invited to talk about art and politics
in their salons proving the influence that conversation, whether private or in an open forum, would promote or influence social change and great art. Figures like Felix Mendelssohn, Marcel Proust, Oscar Wilde, Pablo Picasso and Great Garbo would frequent these sanctuaries to expose their ideas or works without judgment from the so-called normal society of the times.

Henriette Herz, is the first Jewish woman attributed to host a salon featured in what the museum calls ‘The Romance of Emancipation’ in the exhibition. Why so? Because it was during the century of Enlightenment that these types of gathering started to appear, and accepted, in Berlin and Vienna. The salons welcomed an integration of ideas, Jewish or not, dissolving ideas of isolation that have long existed in the German mainstream, especially for the Jewish community. Henriette, daughter of a prominent Berlin doctor, held private lectures in philosophy and science at home. After losing her husband in 1803, she was never able to host the gatherings that included intellectuals and nobles of the society among the guests. “The mind is a powerful equalizer, and love, which now and then does not refrain from meddling, often entirely changes pride into humility.”

It was interesting to learn from the exhibition that during this period, neither Jews nor women had the same education, artistic or political influence showing how the salons helped to change the social notion and conventions between people. Conversation, literature and music played an important role in the salons, and the collection at the Jewish Museum makes use of them through a specially created audio guide and theater. This is no boring guide tour though, through acted conversations and performances, memoirs, letter and much more the visitor gets something closer to an interactive experience. One becomes part of the salons, especially when the museum has divided them so well, and through each of the women in the collection glancing in closer into their lives and passions for the arts.

Perhaps one of the most impressive rooms, or salons, in the exhibitions is the one featuring Margherita Sarfatti. The art collection within shows not only that this woman was an art critic and cultural impresario but a passionate art lover. Salka Viertel’s salon exposes another interesting fact of the salon’s history. Although many of them were mainly used to exchange ideas, hers was the one salon in L.A. that also served as outpost for many of the European talent that came to Hollywood and refugees that escaped the Nazis. Names that once became known as Hollywood royalty during and after the World War such as Greta Garbo, Sergei Einstein, Bertolt Brecht, Thomas Mann and Arnold Schoenberg enjoyed Viertel’s hospitality and the cultural retreat she created for them away from the totalitarian regimes.

I could go on and on about how immersed you’d be when visiting this exhibition. But that would spoil the surprise. I rather tell you that this is a fantastic exhibition that you would not regret dishing out $10.00 for (there’s a special discount for kids and seniors). You will not only walk away with some knowledge of history but also will enjoy the vast art collection, drawings and writings from renowned artists and celebrities.

Co-curators Emily D. Bilksi, scholar and curator of 19th and 20th century art, and Emily Braun, art history professor at Hunter College, have done an excellent job in putting together an exhibition that exposes the power of opinion and ideas that these women had on art, politics and social consciousness of their time.

The museum is also offering two programs with the exhibition. On March 23 at 8:00pm, the Ensemble for the Romantic Century will present Fanny Mendelssohn: Out of her Brother’s Shadow, a theatrical concert featuring her work. On March 31 at 6:30pm, a distinguished panel of speakers will cover the contributions of women such as Gertrude Stein, Margherita Sarfatti and Florentine Stettheimer to literature and visual arts from the late 18th century through the 1930’s.

For more information visit:

www.skuawk.com/fineart/

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