Gertrude Stein went down in history as an innovator and literary revolutionary. Throughout her life, this woman carried the idea of freedom from social norms, creating her own. Contemporaries openly talked about her and scolded her for her rebellious disposition. But today, Gertrude Stein is the standard of progressive thought and the pioneer of modernism. Who is she and what role has she played in the history of contemporary art?
Biography
February 3, 1874 a girl was born in the small American town of Allegheny. She came from a wealthy Jewish family and was the second child. Her father successfully engaged in the construction and sale of real estate and soon made a decent capital, which the children had enough for the rest of their lives.
The girl was called Gertrude. From a young age, she showed herself as a curious child, studied well at school and, following her father's instructions, went to college, where she studied psychology and medicine. However, all this was alien to her, and her relationship with her father was tense. After spending her childhood between two cultural capitals - Paris and Vienna, Gertrude Stein immediately felt a craving for beauty.
The conflict has exhausted itself with the death of parents. Gertrude and her older brother Leo were orphaned early. First, their mother passed away from cancer, then her father passed away. Now the young Steins with a huge inheritance and a steady income from a family business were left to their own devices.
Leo moved to Paris, where he rented a small apartment on 27 Fleurus street. Soon, leaving his studies, his sister also moved to him. It is from this moment that Gertrude's hectic creative life begins.
The cozy home of the Steins behind the Luxembourg Gardens soon turned into a bohemian haven. Leo was a critic of art and was engaged in buying and collecting paintings by talented but not yet recognized artists working in a new direction (cubism).
Gertrude Stein in the circle of the Parisian intelligentsia could boast of high aesthetic taste and flair. She was educated, intelligent and at the same time sharp-tongued, therefore, her opinion was not only listened to, but was sometimes afraid of her. She inspired and supported many aspiring artists and writers and gathered around her a real creative circle. Despite such public employment, Gertrude devoted time to her own writing genius, although she was not immediately appreciated by critics.
Eternal lover
The personal life of the freedom-loving American is known for sure that she preferred sorority. She had many male friends, but her heart belonged only to Alice Toklas. They met in 1907 and have not parted since then. Alice traveled to Europe and in Paris decided to meet with a compatriot. The meeting turned out to be crucial. All Paris gossiped about their relationship. It was an open challenge to society. The couple was inseparable until the death of Gertrude.
Grand mother of modernism
In literature, Stein is known as an innovator. She did not think about the ease of style and always experimented with texts, phrases, ambiguous aphorisms. Like her artist friend Picasso, Gertrude Stein was more concerned with form, not content. She was one of the first in the history of literature to use in the narrative a method of consciousness flow without punctuation. It was this quality - to discover new facets of the word - that later became the basis of modernism, and the writer herself was called the grand mother of style.
Despite the demands of the times and traditions prevailing in literature, Gertrude Stein did not want to adapt her creations, although sharp criticism deeply wounded the writer. She earnestly wanted recognition during her lifetime, but her contemporaries considered her strange.
Famous books and quotes
Stein's literary work is often equated with painting. Each word in the work, like a smear of paint, lies on canvas paper and each is equal. The famous books of Gertrude Stein ("Ida", "Three Lives") were written largely under the influence of prominent classics (Shakespeare, Flaubert), and they also feel a relationship with contemporary writers (Hemingway, Fitzgerald), with whom she was friends, whom supported. This is a unique synthesis of European avant-garde and American flavor. In addition, poetic works, lectures on literature and the famous aphorisms of the innovative writer have reached the modern reader.
Criticism
One of her first creations, written in 1909, was the novel Three Lives. Gertrude Stein spoke of three female destinies, three characters. The action takes place in America, at Bridge Point. The narrative is rather restrained, later it received the definition of “emotional anesthesia”. Critics, using the correlation of prose with painting, pointed to the influence of the French artist Cezanne in creating the heroine of Good Anna. The free syntax and open sexuality of the heroine Melankta gave the right to refer to the friendship of Stein and Picasso. But the influence of the Fauvist Matisse is felt most acutely in the character of Silent Lena.
In 1937, another significant book was published. It was an open story about his life, which Gertrude Stein did not immediately decide on. “Everyone’s Autobiography” - this is the title of the work. On the pages of the book the reader not only gets acquainted with the main milestones, people and experiences in the life of the author, but also with her self-esteem. The book details Stein's trip to the United States after a 30-year absence and the changes that have taken place in the country. The work is filled with playful and mysterious aphorisms on which Gertrude Stein was so inventive. Quotes from her works, by the way, are a separate study and a puzzle for critics.
Confession
1940 was a turning point for the whole of France. The occupation by the Germans, the war temporarily paralyzed the creative life of Paris. The situation for Gertrude was complicated by the fact that she was Jewish. She was offered to leave for a while, but, being already an old lady, she decided to trust her fate and stay in a country house. In 1944, the alarming situation subsided, and the writer safely returned to her native Paris. However, two years later, Gertrude Stein was struck with a diagnosis of cancer. Only morphine saved from pain. On July 27 a heavy operation was coming. Her writer's heart could not stand it ...
During her life, Gertrude Stein never received public recognition. For all her efforts and creative experiments, she received ridicule, betrayal and disapproval. Only in the middle of the last century did they speak positively about the writer. The books of Gertrude Stein were translated into many languages, including Russian, and replenished the golden fund of world art. And the writer herself was ranked among the classics of American literature.
Muse art
Her personality was multifaceted and at the same time mysterious. Stein openly expressed her opinion, was free from prejudice, but was sensitive to criticism of others. Such a controversial person simply could not go unnoticed by the masters of art. So, Pavel Chelishchev (the Russian founder of mystical surrealism) used the image of Gertrude to write the canvas "Phenomena." No less famous work is the “Portrait of Gertrude Stein” - the creation of Pablo Picasso.
The writer appears in the cinema: in the feature film "Modernists" (1987), in the picture of Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris" (2011). The image of Gertrude is present in literary works: Hemingway, “A Feast That Is Always With You,” and Satterthwaite, “Masquerade.” In different years, Stein has been putting music on poetic texts by American composers Virgil Thompson (1934) and James Tinney (1970). Today in New York, in Bryant Park, is a monument to the writer.
Interesting Facts
- Many people of art of that time sought to get into the house of Gertrude Stein. Someone who turned to the writer for personal advice, some for support, some for “reasonable” criticism. Her famous guests were Ernest Hemingway and Scott Fitzgerald, to whom Gertrude Stein herself gave the definition of “lost generation” - people who were early grown up and could not find their place in life.
- Gertrude's older brother Leo Stein did not approve of his sister's decision to live with Alice Toklas. He expressed his protest in leaving home on Fleurus Street and breaking ties with Gertrude.
- Despite the fact that for many beginning art geniuses Gertrude Stein was a guiding star and a rich source of theoretical knowledge, she valued her own writing talent modestly, and long hard work often did not receive any response from society at all. The disappointment was reinforced by the fact that she enjoyed the respect and admiration of her "pupils" while they were inexperienced. With recognition, they often cut off friendships and even spoke negatively about the personality of the writer.