Questions and Answers

In my children’s book Gertrude and Alice and Fritz and Tom, which I hope will soon reach the bookstores of the various museums where the Stein exhibitions are being held, the two young boys who visit rue de Fleurus encounter the atelier’s floor-to-ceiling paintings for the first time:

“Look at this really rambling room!” whispered Tom.  “There are masterful modern paintings floor to ceiling!  It looks like a museum!  I hate museums, everything in a museum is musty and moldy.”

Fritz pressed his nose against one of the paintings.  “This person has four flaming eyes and three thick ears and is not musty and moldy!”

 

I can assure you that there is also nothing musty or moldy at  The Steins Collect exhibition which opened last week at SFMOMA !

In the 25+ years that I’ve been obsessed with GertrudeandAlice I have had moments more extraordinary than the proverbial “aha!”  moments. I  would have to say that they are  more like  “ah Stein!” moments!

I experienced several of those moments walking through this exhibition with Julian Stein.  Following the introductory lecture by curator Janet Bishop, Julian and I scurried through the museum’s atrium past the waiters and hors d’oeuvres into the elevator for the 4^th floor galleries.  There we found room after room filled with works that had once hung on the walls of  the homes GertrudeandLeoandMichaelandSarah.

Julian had been a guest at their homes as a boy and had seen some of these paintings in Paris or at the home of the Cone sisters in Baltimore, his hometown. We’d pause in awe in front of some of the more familiar ones like Picasso’s 1906 portrait of Gertrude, and marvel at some of the less known ones.  It was also a surprise to see from where some of the paintings had come – Melbourne, Copenhagen, and Stuttgart.

In addition to the paintings, the exhibition also features family photo albums and some of the Stein’s massive Neo-Renaissance furniture now owned by a lucky family in Pittsburgh.   At one point Julian rested his hand one of the sideboards.

“You better be careful that one of the security guards doesn’t see that,” I warned. But then added, “If he does, you can just say ‘You know, I used to do this all the time when I visited in Paris and it was no problem!’ “

One gallery is devoted to the house built for Michael Stein by Le Corbusier, the Villa Stein-de Monzie.  It was in this gallery that I had the “über-ah Stein” moment !

As part of the installation there is a video copy of a 1929 home movie shot by Julian’s father, Julian Sr. In it, a 10 year-old Julian is hamming it up for the camera, as cousin Gertrude and others walk around the grounds of the house.  So, there I stood next to Julian Stein, eighty-two years later in a SFMOMA gallery watching a young Julian cavorting around cousin Gertrude Stein – “AH STEIN!”

Following the opening, a dinner was hosted by the museum up the street in the Palm Court of the Palace Hotel.  Opening remarks were made by Charles “Chuck” Schwab, chairman of the SFMOMA Board.

Julian and his daughter Ellen Dennis Stein (with their respective partners) represented the Stein clan; members of the Matisse and de Monzie family  reunited this famous group. Another guest was one of Sarah Stein’s doctors who attested to the Stein’s California tenure.

The menu for the evening was taken from Alice’s cookbook…and no, that was not served!

Lastly,  SFMOMA security, we really did not press our noses against any of the paintings.  And that’s the truth!

I do hereby declare that the SUMMER of STEINS has officially begun!

 

Tagged Elizabeth Sheehan, Ellen Dennis Stein, Gertrude and Alice and Fritz and Tom, Gertrude Stein, Janet Bishop, Julian Stein, Le Corbusier, Matisse, Michael Stein, Picasso, SFMOMA, The Steins Collect, Tom Hachtman, Villa Stein-de Monzie