‘Brilliant Exiles’ brings the women of Jazz Age Paris to the Georgia Museum of Art

When politics feel grim and the headlines unrelenting, who wouldn’t want to step through a portal into somewhere brighter, bolder and a little more enchanted?

Brilliant Exiles: American Women in Paris, 1900–1939, on view at the Georgia Museum of Art (GMA) in Athens through November 2, offers just that: a shimmering doorway into early 20th-century Paris, where extraordinary American women of all stripes came to re-invent themselves.

At the heart of this richly curated show is a colossal, wall-scale lithograph street ad for Josephine Baker at the Folies Bergère — dazzling, elegant, an icon of speed, modernity and the seductive promise of something new. It sets the tone for the exhibition, but what surrounds it is deeper, more intimate and even more compelling.

Presented by the National Portrait Gallery and organized by curator Robyn Asleson, Brilliant Exiles showcases roughly 65 portraits of American women — artists, writers, performers, patrons, collectors and wealthy eccentrics — who, like Baker, found in Paris a place to make new works and remake themselves. Spanning painting, photography, sculpture and posters, the exhibition is vibrant and expansive, unfolding across several large rooms at the GMA. Rather than following a strict chronology, the show is arranged thematically, centered around nightlife, publishing salons, modern dance and more.

From iconic names like Gertrude Stein, Anaïs Nin, Peggy Guggenheim and Isadora Duncan to lesser-known trailblazers like Natalie Clifford Barney, Romaine Brooks, Nancy Elizabeth Prophet and Margaret Lefranc, the show balances familiar names with interesting new discoveries. Asleson’s framing emphasizes the women’s Americanness as a unique position: not quite French, no longer American, able to experiment both in their work and in their modes of self-presentation in ways unavailable at home. 

Portraits here aren’t passive likenesses, however. They capture active (and, at the time, startlingly new) forms of self-definition. The variety of media and styles — lithographs, oils, gelatin silver prints, self-portraits — mirrors the freedom and experimentation of the era. 

One particularly intriguing juxtaposition places Baker’s high-voltage poster on an opposite wall to Luigi Lucioni’s quiet 1939 portrait of Ethel Waters. Waters stands arms-folded, protective and pensive, miles from her brassy stage persona. The contrast suggests both the seductive potential and the guarded cost of re-invention; Baker may have come to Paris to sing and dance, but Waters came to be offstage, to be away from the pressures of the spotlight, show business and American racism.

Paris offered similar refuge to many American women, especially queer and Black artists, and Brilliant Exiles effectively zeroes in on their modes of self-presentation and self-definition. Portraits of Loïs Mailou Jones, Lillian Evanti and others reveal deeper layers of exile and personal freedom. Community is present, too: Stein and her salon, Sylvia Beach and her famous English language bookstore, Barney and her gatherings — all places where women supported each other socially and intellectually. 

Such is the incredible variety and thoughtfulness of the show in which it’s not forgotten that many women came to Paris, not to connect with others but to be alone and work. One of the most memorable portraits is a photograph of the famously introverted African American sculptor Nancy Elizabeth Prophet. She’s striking in an oversized pilgrim hat, but her expression is full of timidity, doubt and vulnerability.

In turbulent times, Brilliant Exiles lands with urgency, intricately exploring a time when extraordinary women carved out lives and identities on their own terms in defiance of prescriptive norms. It hooks you with Baker’s poster and other bold images of famous faces but lingers in quieter introductions to lesser-known lives. If you’re within driving distance, consider this an obligatory pilgrimage. This show is clever, vibrant, visually electrifying and totally unforgettable.

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Andrew Alexander is an Atlanta-based writer.