{"id":2807,"date":"2011-09-05T07:00:54","date_gmt":"2011-09-05T14:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gertrudeandalice.com\/blog\/?p=2807"},"modified":"2011-11-16T09:51:19","modified_gmt":"2011-11-16T17:51:19","slug":"salon-farewell-auf-wiedersehen-good-bye","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gertrudeandalice.com\/blog\/2011\/09\/05\/salon-farewell-auf-wiedersehen-good-bye\/","title":{"rendered":""Salon, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Good-bye…""},"content":{"rendered":"

With all due respect to the musical The Sound of Music,<\/em>\u00a0one of whose songs contained lyrics bastardized in the title of this post, we must bid adieu <\/em>to the Summer of Steins in San Francisco. Both exhibitions SEEING GERTRUDE STEIN: FIVE STORIES <\/strong>\u00a0at the Contemporary Jewish Museum and THE STEINS COLLECT: MATTISE, \u00a0PICASSO AND THE PARISIAN AVANT-GARDE <\/strong>at SFMOMA\u00a0end tomorrow, September 6th. \u00a0And 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\u00a0Grand Palais from October 3rd \u00a0– \u00a0January 16, 2012 \u00a0and \u00a0then the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York \u00a0from 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!<\/p>\n

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the movie Von Trapps bid their adieus!<\/p><\/div>\n

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\u2014books, 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\u2019t know what the exact attendance figures are, but I\u2019ve heard through the GertrudeandAlice grapevine that more than 400,000 people saw the exhibitions. Every time I went to either museum, there were crowds.<\/p>\n

I saw the exhibition at the Contemporary Jewish Museum ten times and the SFMOMA one five times.\u00a0 Each time was special and I saw new things in the installations with each visit.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 (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!\u00a0 Next stop DC and Paris! Not to mention that that\u2019s quite a list of first names for anyone who may soon have an infant joining their family!<\/p>\n

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With my brother Walter (left) and the G&A cutouts at the CJM<\/p><\/div>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

Wanda Corn’s and Tirza Latimer’s essays provide an invaluable resource in SEEING GERTRUDE STEIN: FIVE STORIES <\/strong>with photographs from the exhibition as well as additional\u00a0 ones which help to round out the book\u2019s comprehensive look at Gertrude and her life together with Alice.<\/p>\n

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The various chapters in THE STEINS COLLECT <\/strong>edited by the show\u2019s three curators, Janet Bishop, C\u00e9cile DeBray and Rebecca Rabinow are readable and informative. \u00a0Plus 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.<\/p>\n

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Rose two goes to other favorite things in each show, in no particular order \u2013 note the Sound\u00a0 of<\/strong>\u00a0 Music<\/strong> theme again:<\/p>\n

\u2022 the furniture pieces from rue de Fleurus at SFMOMA.\u00a0 What did Gertrude write at that desk and what did Alice store in that massive cabinet: Gertrude\u2019s notebooks or her stash for that fudge?<\/p>\n

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The mysterious cabinet of rue de Fleurus!<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2022 the Vallotton Stein portrait at CJM and one of Gertrude\u2019s stickpins displayed nearby;<\/p>\n

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Felix Vallotton's post-Picasso portrait, 1907<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2022 the small passport photo of Alice at CJM the year she headed to Paris and her life changed forever;<\/p>\n

\u2022 the recently found Sarah Stein notebook at SFMOMA chronicling Matisse\u2019s lectures to his students at the short-lived Academie Matisse;<\/p>\n

\u2022 the wonderful wall-length display of my Stein first-editions at CJM \u2013 all the Stein you\u2019d wish to read;<\/p>\n

\u2022 the two Gertrude vests at CJM, her fashion statements extraordinaire;<\/p>\n

\u2022 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;<\/p>\n

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A classic of modernity with the Stein's neo-Renaissance furniture!<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2022 the Marie Laurencin portrait of Basket II at CJM, everyone needs such a painting of their pet;<\/p>\n

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How much is that doggie in the window?<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2022 the VanVechten photograph at SFMOMA of Alice trying to decorate Basket I with a bunch of roses, a cigarette dangling from her mouth;<\/p>\n

\u2022 Tom Hachtman’s astonishing DoubleTake Gertrude Steinem at CJM;<\/p>\n

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Gertrude Steinem with a touch of John Lennon<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2022 the Picasso portrait of Gertrude at SFMOMA, so rarely on the road but always a must-see;<\/p>\n

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Alice and Janet Flanner, Paris 1955 not San Francisco 2011 !<\/p><\/div>\n

and\u2026you know there are too many \u201craindrops on roses, and whiskers on kittens,\u201d how about a huge bouquet for everyone involved and to all of the appreciative museum visitors!?<\/p>\n

A copout? Well, they really were amazing exhibitions which now move on, so catch them if you can.<\/p>\n

Disappointments… let\u2019s just say that \u201cthe pigeons on the grass, alas,\u201d\u00a0 from the Stein\/Thomson opera\u00a0FOUR SAINTS IN THREE ACTS <\/strong>left more on the grass to clean-up than they offered to their audiences as tasty squab!<\/p>\n

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Pigeons on the grass...doing pigeon things by Tom Hachtman<\/p><\/div>\n

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\u00a0 Gisela Z\u00fcchner-Mogall.<\/p>\n

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. \u00a0But 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.<\/p>\n

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PS<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

And get ready for another Stein exhibition in Washington, DC in October at the Stanford Bing Gallery, INSIGHT & IDENTITY: CONTEMPORARY<\/strong> ARTISTS AND GERTRUDE STEIN<\/strong>. \u00a0I’m co-curating that one with Dyana Curreri-Ermatiger. More on the show soon!<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With all due respect to the musical The Sound of Music,\u00a0one 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 \u00a0at the Contemporary Jewish Museum and THE STEINS COLLECT: MATTISE, \u00a0PICASSO AND THE […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":69,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[15,43,45,62,74,89,93,111,131,145,175,181,192,215,222,224,233,237],"class_list":["post-2807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-events","category-historic-facts","tag-alice-b-toklas","tag-carrie-pilto","tag-cecile-debray","tag-dyana-curreri-ermatiger","tag-four-saints-in-three-acts","tag-gertrude-stein","tag-gisela-zuchner-mogall","tag-janet-bishop","tag-le-corbusier","tag-marie-laurencin","tag-pigeons-on-the-grass-alas","tag-rebecca-rabinow","tag-seeing-gertrude-steinfive-stories","tag-the-steins-collect","tag-tirza-true-latimer","tag-tom-hachtman","tag-villa-stein-de-monzie","tag-wanda-m-corn"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gertrudeandalice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gertrudeandalice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gertrudeandalice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gertrudeandalice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/69"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gertrudeandalice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2807"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/gertrudeandalice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2807\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3490,"href":"https:\/\/gertrudeandalice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2807\/revisions\/3490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gertrudeandalice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gertrudeandalice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gertrudeandalice.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}