Where do I begin? The exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco has floored me completely. Even as a child I heard about the great Gertrude Stein and her brother Leo. Collectors from another age and another mindset. Most ( but not all! ) of the collectors I knew from the world of my parents were rich people interested in buying what was fashionable. The Steins were interested in what was then new and unsalable. They sought what was overlooked or frowned upon. The Stein siblings bought work of artists they respected, not artists that were bankable. More often than not they made the artists career by putting their work up on the hallowed walls of the Stein Paris apartment. Gertrude certainly backed up her artist favorites with fierceness. She defended Juan Gris from all critics, even Picasso, arguably one of her most adored. Juan Gris, Matisse, Cezanne were just some of the artists that she took up for when the art world largely either ignored or thumbed their noses at them. And now for the first time, we have the Stein collection reunited. The size and beauty of this collection is staggering. Painting after painting...I was like a kid in a candy store. My eyes could not get enough of all of it. I have to go back. I have to....
