Questions and Answers

With all due respect to the musical The Sound of Music, one of whose songs contained lyrics bastardized in the title of this post, we must bid adieu to the Summer of Steins in San Francisco. Both exhibitions SEEING GERTRUDE STEIN: FIVE STORIES  at the Contemporary Jewish Museum and THE STEINS COLLECT: MATTISE,  PICASSO AND THE PARISIAN AVANT-GARDE at SFMOMA end tomorrow, September 6th.  And though both of them will be travelling, the first to the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC from October 14th – January 22nd, 2012 and the other one to both Paris at the Grand Palais from October 3rd  –  January 16, 2012  and  then the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York  from February 21 through June 3, 2012, the Summer of Steins in San Francisco will not be able to be replicated as the Fall, Winter or Spring of Steins in any of the other cities – this summer was just too special!

What made the exhibitions here once in a lifetime occasions is not only the enormity of the efforts to gather together such amazing works of art—books, photographs, sculptures and paintings (not to mention the furniture from 27 rue de Fleurus), but also the ties that the Stein Family and Alice B. Toklas had to the San Francisco Bay Area. I think that these ties and the ongoing curiosity about these families prompted the extraordinary reception that the Bay Area gave to these shows – almost a long overdue homecoming not experienced since GertrudeandAlice returned to the States seventy-five years ago. I don’t know what the exact attendance figures are, but I’ve heard through the GertrudeandAlice grapevine that more than 400,000 people saw the exhibitions. Every time I went to either museum, there were crowds.

I saw the exhibition at the Contemporary Jewish Museum ten times and the SFMOMA one five times.  Each time was special and I saw new things in the installations with each visit.

I toured the shows with Denny, Evie, Vishwa, Julian, Betsy, Renate, Miriam, Dyana, another Betsy, Lissa, Kiril, Trudy, Kathleen, Caroline, Walter, Monica, Laurie, Lynn, Blythe, another Monica, Tristan, and Beau.  (And gave some complimentary tickets to Jack and Christopher.) Had we all gone together, it would have been a great tour group with me at the front waving a yellow rose!  Next stop DC and Paris! Not to mention that that’s quite a list of first names for anyone who may soon have an infant joining their family!

I was not able to attend all of the events which highlighted this amazing summer, but will pinpoint a few things that made it special for me.

The first yellow rose goes to the two books that accompany each exhibition. By weight, the SFMOMA book wins weighing in at just under seven pounds while the CJM book is about half as heavy. But as far as content and design, both books are winners.

Wanda Corn’s and Tirza Latimer’s essays provide an invaluable resource in SEEING GERTRUDE STEIN: FIVE STORIES with photographs from the exhibition as well as additional  ones which help to round out the book’s comprehensive look at Gertrude and her life together with Alice.

The various chapters in THE STEINS COLLECT edited by the show’s three curators, Janet Bishop, Cécile DeBray and Rebecca Rabinow are readable and informative.  Plus page after page of photographs of not only works of art from the Steins’ collections, but snapshots of their homes with each painting on the wall identified by a numbering code, offer a coffee table book which will be read and not just admired.

Rose two goes to other favorite things in each show, in no particular order – note the Sound  of  Music theme again:

• the furniture pieces from rue de Fleurus at SFMOMA.  What did Gertrude write at that desk and what did Alice store in that massive cabinet: Gertrude’s notebooks or her stash for that fudge?

• the Vallotton Stein portrait at CJM and one of Gertrude’s stickpins displayed nearby;

• the small passport photo of Alice at CJM the year she headed to Paris and her life changed forever;

• the recently found Sarah Stein notebook at SFMOMA chronicling Matisse’s lectures to his students at the short-lived Academie Matisse;

• the wonderful wall-length display of my Stein first-editions at CJM – all the Stein you’d wish to read;

• the two Gertrude vests at CJM, her fashion statements extraordinaire;

• the Le Corbusier room at SFMOMA showcasing the Villa Stein-de Monzie so beautifully curated by Carrie Pilto with the video of a young Julian Stein, Jr. romping about;

• the Marie Laurencin portrait of Basket II at CJM, everyone needs such a painting of their pet;

• the VanVechten photograph at SFMOMA of Alice trying to decorate Basket I with a bunch of roses, a cigarette dangling from her mouth;

• Tom Hachtman’s astonishing DoubleTake Gertrude Steinem at CJM;

• the Picasso portrait of Gertrude at SFMOMA, so rarely on the road but always a must-see;

and…you know there are too many “raindrops on roses, and whiskers on kittens,” how about a huge bouquet for everyone involved and to all of the appreciative museum visitors!?

A copout? Well, they really were amazing exhibitions which now move on, so catch them if you can.

Disappointments… let’s just say that “the pigeons on the grass, alas,”  from the Stein/Thomson opera FOUR SAINTS IN THREE ACTS left more on the grass to clean-up than they offered to their audiences as tasty squab!

As these shows leave the Bay Area and one heads East to Washington, DC and the other even further East to Paris, I’d like to close with a Stein quote and new piece that I just received from my friend, Australian artist  Gisela Züchner-Mogall.

We are in no way turning our backs to the memorable views those of us who experienced the Summer of Steins have had – views that will be with us for many, many years.  But as we walk away, however, we will still remember what we’ve seen just as Alice recalled the paintings that were removed from rue Christine – the outlines where they hung were there as were the oh, so pleasant memories.

PS

And get ready for another Stein exhibition in Washington, DC in October at the Stanford Bing Gallery, INSIGHT & IDENTITY: CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS AND GERTRUDE STEIN.  I’m co-curating that one with Dyana Curreri-Ermatiger. More on the show soon!

 

 

 

 

Tagged Alice B. Toklas, Carrie Pilto, Cécile Debray, Dyana Curreri-Ermatiger, Four Saints in Three Acts, Gertrude Stein, Gisela Zuchner-Mogall, Janet Bishop, Le Corbusier, Marie Laurencin, Pigeons on the grass alas, Rebecca Rabinow, Seeing Gertrude Stein:Five Stories, The Steins Collect, Tirza True Latimer, Tom Hachtman, Villa Stein-de Monzie, Wanda M. Corn