Sunday, June 3, 2012

The Steins Collect at the Met

Not since visiting the Chester Dale Collection at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. have I been so moved by an exhibit that was so vast and just seemed to keep going on and on. As we walked through gallery after gallery of the exhibition  "The Steins Collect" on its last day at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it was clear that Gertrude Stein, her brothers, Leo and Michael and Michael's wife Sarah were some of the most important collectors and therefore influences on what you and I view today as some of the greatest and most original art of all time. About the Exhibition.


I've read Gertrude Stein's writings and a lot of what's been written about her and just like "Midnight in Paris," Woody Allen's recent film where Stein is portrayed by Kathy Bates, it's hard not to want to get to know more about her once you see this show.  She was a shrewd collector and knew when to sell and trade the masterpieces she was smart enough to recognize and buy - to her advantage.  It's one of the most fascinating stories in art history with so many players; and on display are included paintings, drawings, sculptures and sketches by up and coming artists that were also influenced by the painters the Steins supported.


Read The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas
The Steins Collect catalogue


1 comment:

cesera said...

Dear  ,

now this wonderfull exhibition,"The Steins Collect;Matisse,Picasso,Cezanne and the Parisian Avant Garde" in NewYork at the Metropolitan Museum of Art ,is over .

It was a little more than twelve months the Steins’s Year .Perhaps one more than one million visitons in the five exhibitions .

What a pleasure to see the portrait of Gertrude Stein by Riba-Rovira .

Who was as Picasso an antifascist and antinazi artist .Persecuted by Franco and the Nazis .And is in this exhibition ,thanks to Rebecca Rabinow and Edward Burns,
So Riba-Rovira is beside Tchelitchew and Balthus and Francis Rose near Picabia and Picasso in the last room of this exhibition with Cézanne, Matisse .

You have an interesting article in Appollo London Revew about him .And also in Artes Magazine from San Francisco where the exhibition was before .

The main revelation is in the mention beside the picture with the Preface Gertrude Stein wrote for first Riba-Rovira's exhibition in the Galerie Roquepine in Paris on 1945 .

Where we can read Gertrude Stein writing Riba-Rovira "will go farther than Cezanne...will succeed in where Picasso failed...I am fascinated " by Riba-Rovira Gertrude Stein tells us .

And you are you also fascinated indeed as Gertrude Stein by Riba-Rovira ?
Me I am when I see « L’Arlequin » on the free access website of « Galeria Muro ».

Gertrude Stein spoke in this same document not only Picasso and Cezanne but also Matisse and  Juan Gris .
Riba-Rovira went each week in Gertrude Stein's saloon rue Christine with Masson, Hemingway and others. By Edward Burns and Carl Van Vechten we can know Riba-Rovira did others portraits of Gertrude Stein .

But we do not know where they are ;and you do you know perhaps ?

With this portrait we do not forget it is the last time Gertrude Stein sat for an artist who is Riba-Rovira .Picasso the first .
This exhibition presents us a world success with this last painting portrait before she died .And her last Gertrude Stein's Art Retrospective before dead .

It illuminates the tone as an esthetic light over that exhibition now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York thanks to Curator Rebecca Rabinow .
Coming from San Francisco "Seeing five stories" in the Jewish museum to Washington in National Portrait Gallery .And after Paris, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York for our pleasure .

And the must is to see for the first time in the same place portraits by Picasso, Picabia, Riba-Rovira, Rose ,Tall-Coat, Valloton .Never before it was .

You have the translate of Gertrude Stein's Riba-Rovira Preface on english Gertrude Stein's page on Wikipedia and in the catalog of this Roquepine exhibition you can see in first place the mention of this portrait .And also other pictures Gertrude Stein bought to Riba-Rovira .
There is another place where you can see now Riba-Rovira's works in an exhibition in Valencia in Spain "Homenage a Gertrude Stein" by Riba-Rovira in Galeria Muro ,if you like art ...

We do not missed today that all over Europe a very bad wind is blowing again bringing the worth in front of us .And we must know that at least were two antinazis and antifascists in this exhibition but the only one fighting weapons in hands would be Riba-Rovira who did one of the first three « affiches » supporting Republicans in the beguining Spanish civil war .

Seeing Potrait of Gertrude Stein by Riba-Rovira in the Metropolitain Museum of New York with Picasso ,Cézanne ,Matisse we feel a recreation of spirit .