In "Helen Rubinstein's Beauty Salons, Fashion, and Modernist Display," Marie Clifford argues that Rubinstein's businesses "deliberately strove to redefine standards of taste and fashionable femininity by using select examples of modernism, in terms of both interior decortion and art."
In formulating my sense of the US and Modernism, it strikes me that the US required a mediator as it seemed to be suspicious of European ideas around Modernism. Rubinstein provided this for women, both upper class as well as middle class, and, by extension men. She offered a middle ground "between incomprehensible abstract work and outmoded artistic styles" by featuring artists who bridged this divide. She provided American women with something that suited their mindset. Similarly, in terms of interior spaces, she modified in order to reconcile two opposing views: interior spaces as scripted environments and interior spaces as spatial autobiographies. These compromises reduced the resistance her clientele may have felt had she been more adamant as was Corbusier.
My question is: As a result of these compromises, was Rubenstien truly committed to Modernism; or, did she simply create a really good brand for herself that promised style and taste for those who purchased, at least for a time?
P.S. A differnt way of asking this question: To what extent is Rubinstein's Modernism constructed for a purpose versus an authentic dynamic urge ?
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