Two of the most prominent poems Gertrude Stein has ever written on the subject of the famous Spanish painter Pablo Picasso were her "Picasso" (1909), written three years after Picasso painted a portrait of her in 1906, when she admired Picasso of his art, and "If I Told Him: a Completed Portrait of Picasso" (1923), when she started to doubt the worth of her literary works. Despite the stark difference of the poem’s background, both poems use literary techniques that resembles different forms of arts, including that of painting, film, dance and music.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Painting
3. Film
4. Dance
5. Conclusion
6. Reference
Research Objectives and Themes
The primary objective of this work is to analyze how Gertrude Stein integrates techniques from various art forms—specifically painting, film, dance, and music—into her two seminal poems about Pablo Picasso. The research explores how Stein’s literary style functions as a bridge between these mediums, particularly through the use of repetition, abstraction, and structural innovation.
- The role of abstraction in Stein’s 1909 and 1923 portraits of Picasso.
- Comparative analysis between literary repetition and cinematic/musical motifs.
- The influence of Picasso’s artistic evolution on Stein’s poetic technique.
- The connection between repetitive movement in dance and the rhythm of Stein’s verse.
- Stein’s status as a pioneer of early minimalism in literature.
Excerpt from the Book
Painting
The fact that the two poems are portraits of Mr. Pablo Picasso resembles the poems as paintings per se. The first portrait of Picasso, is deemed as a response by Stein on Picasso’s portrait of her, which was drawn three years earlier than the writing of the portrait (Mitrano, 2017). Although when Picasso drew Stein’s portrait it was in Picasso’s Rose Period, in which Picasso’s paintings were primitivist but still somehow realistic, when the poem Picasso was written it was already in Picasso’s African period, in which Picasso started to mimic African art and use simple lines and shapes to depict objects and realism seemed to have lost its trace.
Stein imitates Picasso’s becoming-abstract paintings by using the indefinite pronoun “one” in her 1909 portrait of Picasso, instead of using the pronoun “he” or the name Picasso, by making the protagonist of the poem more abstract (Mitrano, 2017). According to McCloud (1993), the more abstract a figure is, the more number of entities it may represent, and more people can substitute themselves into the art by resembling themselves, thus getting a much amplified meaning. By looking at Picasso’s paintings in his African period, and by reading Stein’s portrait of Picasso, one can substitute themselves as the protagonist easily in both situations. An abstractist would argue that, therefore, for a painting or a poem to contain a universally true meaning, the painting or the poem must be abstract enough for the meaning to be pinpointing at the universal public rather than a realistic individual.
Chapter Summary
Introduction: This chapter provides the background for the two portraits of Pablo Picasso written by Gertrude Stein and highlights how the literary works engage with diverse art forms.
Painting: This chapter examines the parallels between Stein’s poetic structure and the techniques used in Picasso’s paintings, specifically focusing on abstraction and the process of composition.
Film: This chapter explores how Stein’s use of repetition mirrors early 20th-century cinematic techniques to create an effect of grammatical unconsciousness.
Dance: This chapter discusses how the repetitive movements inherent in dance relate to the rhythm and structure of Stein’s poetry and the familiarity created through such patterns.
Conclusion: This chapter synthesizes how Stein pioneered minimalist techniques in literature by drawing from other arts, influencing the cross-media exchange of creative methods.
Reference: This section lists the scholarly works and theoretical sources used to support the analysis throughout the essay.
Keywords
Gertrude Stein, Pablo Picasso, Painting, Film, Dance, Music, Abstraction, Minimalism, Repetition, Literary Techniques, Poetics, Modernism, Portraiture, Art Forms, Structural Innovation.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the central focus of this research paper?
The paper examines how Gertrude Stein incorporates the stylistic techniques of painting, film, dance, and music into her two poems about Pablo Picasso.
What are the primary themes discussed in the text?
The central themes include the evolution of abstraction, the impact of repetition on the audience, the intersection of literature with visual and performing arts, and Stein’s pioneering role in minimalism.
What is the main research question?
The study investigates how Gertrude Stein utilizes the aesthetic techniques of other artists and art forms to construct her specific literary portraits of Pablo Picasso.
Which methodology is employed in this analysis?
The paper employs a comparative and interdisciplinary literary analysis, contrasting Stein’s poetic devices with concepts from art history, film theory, and choreography.
What topics are covered in the main body of the work?
The main body investigates the poems through the lenses of painting (abstraction), film (repetition and cinematic structure), dance (repetitive movement and familiarity), and music (motif and rhythm).
Which keywords best describe this study?
The most relevant keywords include Gertrude Stein, Pablo Picasso, abstraction, minimalism, repetition, and interdisciplinary analysis.
How does Stein’s use of the pronoun "one" relate to abstraction?
By replacing specific names with the indefinite pronoun "one," Stein makes the protagonist more abstract, allowing the reader to more easily identify with or substitute themselves into the poem.
Why does the author argue that Stein is a pioneer of minimalist art?
The author notes that Stein’s 1909 poem "Picasso" utilized minimalist techniques regarding word repetition and gradual change significantly earlier than many other recorded minimalist works.
How does the second portrait (1923) differ from the first (1909)?
The 1923 portrait shifts from the "one" abstraction to identifying Picasso more concretely, while Stein adopts a role as a critical "judge," using the structure of the poem itself to measure the subject.
What role does the audience play in the reception of these poems?
The text argues that the poems often "play a joke" on the audience's senses (grammatical or auditory), forcing them to engage with the text more deeply to overcome the confusion caused by repetitive, changing structures.
- Quote paper
- Kwan Lung Chan (Author), 2019, How does Gertrude Stein take advantage of the techniques of other arts and artists in her two portraits of Pablo Picasso?, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/906406
