Helena Rubinstein: Beauty is Power

New York: The Jewish Museum / Yale University Press, 2014. Hardcover. As New (in shrinkwrap). BW illus. front board, white spine and back board, 168 pp., BW & color illus. Issued in conjunction with a 2014 exhibition showcasing the life and collections of 20th-century cosmetics entrepreneur Helena Rubinstein (1872-1965). "Traces the path of this remarkable early feminist and visionary art patron. In Rubinstein's world, art and commerce blended seamlessly. She ornamented her salons and homes with splended artworks -- Surrealist murals, modernist protraits, Art Deco furniture, Venetian mirrors, and one of the era's great colelctions of African and (truncated) Oceanic art. Her understanding of beauty was similarly expansive and democratic: she saw the face as the site for self-expression and the exploration of identity. The Rubinstein beauty program thus included not only makeup and hairdressing, but also lessons in health, deportment, and culture. Such features, innovative at the time and wildly popular, today provide a fascinating glimpse into popular culture as it affected women in the twentieth century." (back cover). (Inventory #: 148147)