Gabrielle. Muse of the Avant-Garde

September 1908. Gabrielle Buffet, a young independent woman of twenty-seven, a musician and a feminist, met Francis Picabia, a successful artist with a scandalous reputation. His creativity needed a new impulse, and Gabrielle was ready to inspire, provoke thought, and uncover new meanings. She became the "woman with an erotic mind", admired by many men, including Marcel Duchamp and Guillaume Apollinaire. Existing simultaneously between Paris, New York, Berlin, Zurich, Barcelona, Évian, and Saint-Tropez, Gabrielle guided the pioneers of abstract art—futurists and dadaists—always at the forefront of modern artistic thought. This book takes us back to the early twentieth century—a time when old canons were being redefined and rejected, and a new society and new art were being born.