Women Art Collectors: Modernity, Fashion and Taste

Women influenced modern art – not only as artists, models and art critics but to a large extent also as art collectors from the beginning of the twentieth century till today. This course examines the contribution of women art collectors to the creation, display and marketing of modernism in Europe and in the U.S. The course will discuss the importance of famous collectors such as Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, Lillie P. Bliss, Gertrude Stein and Peggy Guggenheim for the development of canonized modernism and examine the achievements of women art collectors as authorities in art, fashion and taste. Questions concerning motivation, activities, gender aspects and influence on modern art would be discussed and analyzed based on autobiographies, biographies, museum publications on the collections, essays and monographs on the collectors. The course further offers an examination of the changing roles of women in Western culture during the twentieth century. These questions would be examined using theories on collecting, gender identity, culture politics and criteria of canonizing art.