Making Way for Berthe Weill—
Art Dealer of the Parisian Avant-Garde
A presentation by Lynn Gumpert, New York

Passionate and outspoken, Weill was the first to sell works by Pablo Picasso, to exhibit Henri Matisse, and organized Amedeo Modigliani’s only solo show during his lifetime. She also championed fledgling Fauves and Cubists along with numerous women artists. Born in 1865 in Paris to a modest Alsatian Jewish family, she apprenticed in her early teens with a print and antique dealer.

At the age of 36, she opened the Galerie B. Weill with a business card that read “Make way for the young.” Weill also sold books, prints, and antiques to pay the rent. In 1941 she was forced to close during the Nazi occupation. Managing to avoid deportation, Weill emerged impoverished and in poor health after the war. She died in 1951 at the age of 85.

Museum director, curator, administrator, and art historian, Lynn Gumpert has overseen and organized exhibitions on four continents. For more than 25 years, she has served as Director of New York University’s Grey Art Museum, formerly known as the Grey Art Gallery. During her tenure, the Grey has presented over 75 exhibitions. Among them are: Taking Shape: Abstraction from the Arab World, 1950s–1980s (2020); The Beautiful Brain: The Drawings of Santiago Ramón y Cajal (2018); and The Downtown Show: The New York Art Scene, 1974–1984 (2006). Gumpert received a BA from the University of California at Berkeley and an MA in art history from the University of Michigan. The French government honored Gumpert with the distinction of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters in 1999.

The exhibition Make Way for Berthe Weill. Art Dealer of the Parisian Avant-Garde features some 110 paintings, drawings, prints, and sculpture—many of which were shown at her gallery during the first four decades of the 20th century. The exhibition also includes archival documents—such as letters, exhibition catalogs, photographs, and journals—that reveal her deep relationships with a range of artists. Examining Weill’s contributions to the history of modernism as a gallerist, a passionate advocate of contemporary art, and a Jewish woman, it brings to light the remarkable achievements of a singular figure who overcame sexism, antisemitism, and economic struggles in her quest to promote emerging artists.

The exhibition is on view at the Grey Art Museum October 1, 2024–March 1, 2025 and will tour to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts May 10–September 7, 2025, and the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris October 8, 2025–January 25, 2026.

An illustrated publication, Berthe Weill: Art Dealer of the Parisian Avant-Garde, accompanies the exhibition. Published by Flammarion, it illuminates the rich artistic period by spotlighting recently rediscovered artists and offering new insights into the era’s central figures. It includes an introductory essay by Le Morvan, a discussion of portraits of Weill by Grace, an essay on antisemitism in late 19th-century France by historian Charles Dellheim, an overview of collectors who frequented the Galerie B. Weill by researcher Robert McD. Parker, and entries on works by Eloy. It also features a chronology and selected bibliography. The publication is available for purchase in-person at the Grey Art Museum, NYU, and through the online bookstore.

Also available is Weill’s recently translated 1933 memoir, Pow! Right in the Eye! Thirty Years Behind the Scenes of Modern French Painting (University of Chicago Press, 2022), which offers rare insights into the Parisian avant-garde and a lively inside account of the development of the modern art market. The volume is edited by Lynn Gumpert and translated by William Rodarmor, with an introduction by Marianne Le Morvan and foreword by Julie Saul and Lynn Gumpert.