The podcast “Les grandes dames de l’art” (“Great women of art”) gives a voice to the women artists of the 20th century. They talk about their work, their life, the world around them, and their achievements. Let us go in search of their presence, their secrets. Let us rediscover the hidden stories of women artists through their voices.

For this second season, we open a new chapter that plunges us into the Paris of the inter-war period, the decade that became notoriously known as the Roaring Twenties. What did the wildness of this decade consist of? It is largely due to women who flourished in this welcoming capital, lived their lives as they wanted, and became artists on equal footing with men. They played a primordial role in the construction of modernity, and we are rediscovering them today.

Gisèle Freund certainly lead one of the most turbulent lives. She recounts her double life as a photographer and historian of photography with humour and wit.

Born in 1908 to a German Jewish bourgeois family, Freund was twelve years old when her father gave her her first camera. Yet, it was out of necessity that she became a photographer: she had to pay for her studies in sociology and art history in Freiburg and then Frankfurt, with the intention of becoming a journalist. She began a thesis on the history of photography, which she continued in Paris, her city of refuge from 1933 onwards. As a member of the Socialist Youth, she feared persecution.

Freund produced more than 180 portraits, often in colour, of writers and artists such as James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Colette, Cocteau or Marcel Duchamp that constitute a window into twentieth-century thinking. The history of photography is still in its infancy in the 30s when Gisèle Freund lays the groundwork for its essential questions, as did Walter Benjamin whom she met in Paris and whose essays are better known than hers, even though they share the same conclusions.

“Les grandes dames de l’art” is a podcast produced by AWARE: Archives of Women Artists, Research and Exhibitions, in collaboration with the INA, with the support of Maison Veuve Clicquot and the Ministry of Culture.

Coordinated by: Mathilde de Croix and the AWARE team
Directed by: Élodie Royer
Music by: Juliano Gil
Credits and Sound Editing: Basile Beaucaire
Scientific Advisors: Catherine Gonnard and Véronique Jolivet
Translation: Beth Gordon
French Voice: Camille Morineau
English Voice: Eléonore Besse
Translation of the Artist’s Voice: Eve Dayre

Pour ce quatrième épisode, nous continuons le nouveau chapitre qui nous plonge dans le Paris de l’entre-deux-guerres, ces années 20 devenues célèbres grâce à l’expression des années folles. En quoi réside la folie de cette décennie ? Elle est due pour beaucoup à des femmes qui s’épanouissent dans cette capitale accueillante, vivent leur vie comme elles l’entendent, deviennent des artistes célèbres au même titre que les hommes. Elles jouent un rôle primordial dans la construction de la modernité, et nous les redécouvrons aujourd’hui.

Gisèle Freund est sans doute celle dont la vie est la plus romanesque. Elle raconte avec humour et esprit sa double vie de photographe et d’historienne de la photographie.

Née en 1908 dans une famille de la bourgeoisie juive allemande, elle a douze ans quand son père lui offre son premier appareil photo. C’est cependant par nécessité qu’elle devient photographe ; il lui faut payer ses études : la sociologie et l’histoire de l’art, à Fribourg puis à Francfort, dans l’intention de devenir journaliste. Elle commence une thèse sur l’histoire de la photographie, qu’elle poursuit à Paris, sa ville refuge à partir de 1933. Membre des Jeunesses socialistes, elle craint les persécutions.

Elle a réalisé plus de cent quatre-vingts portraits d’écrivains et artistes, souvent en couleurs, qui constituent un témoignage de la pensée du XXe, dont James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Colette, Cocteau, Marcel Duchamp… L'histoire de la photographie est encore balbutiante dans les années 30 ; Gisèle Freund pose les jalons d’une réflexion essentielle, comme celle de Walter Benjamin qu’elle rencontre d’ailleurs à Paris et dont les essais sont plus connus que les siens alors qu’ils partagent pourtant les mêmes constats.

Le podcast Les grandes dames de l’art donne la parole aux artistes femmes du XXe siècle. Elles parlent de leur œuvre, de leur vie, du monde qui les entoure et de leurs conquêtes. Partons à la recherche de leur présence, de leurs secrets. Retrouvons l’histoire cachée des artistes femmes, à partir de leurs voix.

Les grandes dames de l’art est une série de podcasts produite par AWARE : Archives of Women Artists, Research and Exhibitions, en partenariat avec l’Institut national de l’audiovisuel, avec le soutien de la Maison Veuve Clicquot et la Délégation à la transmission, aux territoires et à la démocratie culturelle du ministère de la Culture.

AWARE est une association loi 1901 à but non lucratif co-fondée en 2014 par Camille Morineau.

À la préparation : Mathilde de Croix avec l’équipe d’AWARE
À la réalisation : Élodie Royer
Musique originale : Juliano Gil
Générique et mixage sonore : Basile Beaucaire
Conseil scientifique : Catherine Gonnard et Véronique Jolivet
Voix : Camille Morineau

Illustration : Fanny Michaëlis, Gisèle Freund, 2022
© Fanny Michaëlis

For this third episode, we continue our new chapter that plunges us into the Paris of the inter-war period, the decade that notoriously became known as the Roaring Twenties. What did the wildness of this decade consist of? It is largely due to women who flourished in this welcoming capital, lived their lives as they wanted, and became artists on equal footing with men. They played a primordial role in the construction of modernity, and we are rediscovering them today.

Among the women artists present in Paris in the 1920s, many more than one would think are well-known and able to live from their work. Marie Laurencin, born in 1883, who modestly repeated in her interviews that she had no natural predisposition for painting, is one of these personalities to rediscover.

After training at the Manufacture de Sèvres, where she learned to paint on porcelain, the French artist took painting classes at the Humbert Academy. At the turn of the century she met the Parisian avant-garde, amongst which are Picabia and Braque, who in turn introduced her to Picasso as well as Apollinaire, poet and influential art critic of her time, with whom she had a romantic relationship from 1907 to 1912. He put her on a par with male artists in his art columns. In fact, Marie Laurencin was famous during her lifetime. She exhibited very regularly both before and after the war, and received many portrait commissions of celebrities of the time, including, to name but one, Coco Chanel.

The podcast Great Women of Art gives a voice to women artists of the 20th century. They speak about their work, their lives, the world around them and their achievements. Let us go in search of their presence, their secrets. Let us rediscover the hidden history of women artists through their voices.
Great Women of Art is a podcast produced by AWARE: Archives of Women Artists, Research and Exhibitions, in collaboration with the Institut national de l’audiovisuel, with the support of Maison Veuve Clicquot and the Ministry of Culture’s Délégation à la transmission, aux territoires et à la démocratie culturelle.

AWARE is a non-profit organization co-founded in 2014 by Camille Morineau.

Coordinated by: Mathilde de Croix and the AWARE team
Directed by: Élodie Royer
Music by: Juliano Gil
Credits and Sound Editing: Basile Beaucaire
Research Advisors: Catherine Gonnard and Véronique Jolivet
Translation: Beth Gordon
French Voice: Camille Morineau

English Voice: Eléonore Besse

Illustration : Fanny Michaëlis, Marie Laurencin, 2022
© Fanny Michaëlis