The year is 1908, the height of the Belle Époque, and a brilliant, young French woman named Gabriële, newly graduated from the most elite music school in Europe, meets a volcanic Spanish artist named Francis. Following a whirlwind romance, they marry and fall headlong into a Paris that is experimenting with new forms of living, thinking, and creating. Soon after marrying Francis, Gabriële meets Marcel, another young artist, five years her junior. Soon, Francis, Marcel, and Gabriële are all involved in a fervent affair that will change the course of art history and redefine the avant-garde. As the Belle Epoque gives way to rebellion and revolution, and the world descends into the devastation of World War I, Francis Picabia, Marcel Duchamp, and Gabriële Buffet revolutionize art and open up new ways of seeing and thinking, along the way posing a vital question for their age and ours: what is the connection between new ways loving and new ways of creating?
The Berest sisters assemble the story of her remarkable life from historical documents, family records and interviews ... Through the sheer vivacity of the character, who makes her (sometimes shocking) choices freely, we are able to consider a more complicated story than the dichotomy of abused muse or neglected genius. Like Gabriële herself, this book takes on big ideas about modern art and modern life — without losing sight of the people caught and crushed in those turning gears.
he most engaging part of Gabriele is the Berests’ prose: Early on, the authors note that they will be telling the story in the present tense, to capture the feeling and energy of their great-grandmother. The result is a historical novel unlike any other.
