Why We Need Artists' Salons

Julius Schmid's painting "Schubertiade", 1896

A few years ago a dear friend hosted a "salon" for her birthday and invited poets, writers, painters, and musicians. Each person took a turn sharing something they created specifically for her on her birthday. It was delightful! And it was my introduction to an artist's salon.

Since then I've done some research on them and discovered that they include a lot of radical ideas like people of all walks of life talking together and women becoming educated. Plus they even have some the roots in the Harlem Renaissance.

If you are interested in learning more I highly recommend this well researched and somewhat lighthearted look at the history of salons on the "Salon Hosts" website: https://thesalonhost.com/brief-history-of-salons/

In the meantime let me provide a very brief summary:

Salons are safe private places for people to gather and discuss/debate ideas, share new art, music, and literature, philosophy, and provide community. They were really popular for about 400 years (from 1500 to 1900) all across Europe. The focus was on listening, talking, and above all learning.

Like so much of our history, its roots are in Ancient Greece and Rome with the first recorded salons in Italy during the 15th century and then became popular in France in the 17th century. Throughout their history salons have most often been hosted by prominent, educated women in their private homes.

These hosts were called salonniere by the French and they controlled the invitation list, curated the evenings' offerings, and invited other women. Because at this time women were not allowed formal education salons provided a socially acceptable way for women to become educated.

This era between the 1700s into early 1800s was called the Enlightenment, and it was a time when free-thinking flourished. The French believed that an educated and enlightened society was for the good of all. 

Which, unsurprisingly, led to the rise of the exact opposite in the guise of the dictator Napoleon. As Salon Host's article says:

Napoleon did not want to encourage too much free-thinking amongst his people, and firmly believed the powerful position women occupied as hostesses was fundamentally dangerous. He banished one particularly controversial salonista, Germaine de Staël, who was not allowed to come ‘within 40 leagues of Paris’ for ten years beginning in 1803. According to the Memoirs of Madame de Rémusat, another member of the French royal family, Napoleon said she “teaches people to think who had never thought before, or who had forgotten how to think.”

So salons sort-of fizzled out for a while but then started to come back in the late 1800s with a focus on modern art exhibitions and literature. But the two World Wars devastated the salon world although a few fierce women kept theirs going. Notably there was A’lelia Walker’s famous salons of the Harlem Renaissance from 1915-1930, which attracted iconic writers like Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston.

And then there was the American ex-patriots and authors Natalie Clifford Barney and Gertrude Stein who were open lesbians of Jewish descent who became iconic feminist authors, and at their solons they hosted the likes of Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound. Natalie’s salon ran for 60 years, with a a few years of hiatus during World War II because she had to flee to Italy in order to escape Nazi occupation. She returned to Paris in 1949 and resumed her Friday night salon.

In the mid 1900s salons started to gain some momentum in Hollywood and NYC but sadly became associated with Communism and were disbanded during McCarthyism.

Dear reader, it's interesting to me to see how salons come and go often in alignment with society's political leanings. In times with progressive societal trends where people are interested in change and paradigm-shifting ideas, salons flourish. In eras of oppressive leadership who want to reinforce socio-political power structures, salons fade.

But the good news is that they never completely go away! And, especially when they continue during an oppressive regime, they are often the places where new ideas, joyful play in the arts, and plans for a better future are born.

If that sounds good to you then I encourage each and every one of you to start hosting a salon where you invite the most diverse people you can and encourage a robust and respectful exchange of ideas on all matters of the day. For some ideas on how to get started again I recommend the website The Salon Host: https://thesalonhost.com/why-how-to-host-a-salon/