Often found at theaters and museums, Kwon Mee-yoo has covered a wide range of cultural fields from K-pop and dramas to theater and fine art for over a decade. Now as K-Culture Desk editor, she tries to connect Korean culture with global readers through fresh perspectives.
The Steins Collect sheds new light on Matisse, Picasso
By Kwon Mee-yoo
By Kwon Mee-yoo
SAN FRANCISCO — Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso are recognized as masters of cubism, appearing in art textbooks and their works displayed in museums across the world. However, for the Stein family, these artists were their friends.
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) presents “The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso and the Parisian Avant-Garde,” an exhibition that shows works collected by American author Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) and her brothers Leo and Michael and Michael’s wife, Sarah.
The exhibition weaves the family history of the Steins and the Parisian avant-garde movement in an interesting way, offering a chance to think back to the fledgling era of now-reputed master artists and the patrons behind them.
The Steins encouraged young, aspiring artists and new art trends with an open mind. Originally based in the San Francisco Bay Area, they moved to Paris and created a private art collection which made them well-known. They met and bought works by artists on top of Matisse and Picasso, who were then eager young painters in need of patrons.
The exhibition features more than 200 paintings, sculptures, and other pieces, including 75 by Matisse and 45 by Picasso. Though the majority of the collection is composed of works by these two artists, they also collected pieces by Pierre Bonnard, Paul Cezanne, Juan Gris, Henri Manguin and Pierre-Auguste Renoir and more. The exhibition provides a chance to experience what it would have been like at the salons of the Steins in the early 1900s.
“The Stein family legacy is proof that individual collectors make a huge impact on art history,” SFMOMA director Neal Benezra said in a press release. “I can’t imagine a more timely and inspiring reminder that when it comes to collecting, presenting and preserving the art of our time, it’s the appetite for risk and intellectual engagement with living artists that brings about the most important and lasting outcomes.”
The exhibition begins with Leo’s early collection, which he acquired around 1902. Gertrude joined her brother at 27 Rue de Fleurus in Paris a year later and the siblings discovered Matisse when they purchased “Woman With a Hat,” one of the most radical pieces of art at the 1905 Salon d’Automne.
The evolution of their artistic taste can be seen throughout the exhibition, as the works are displayed in chronological order of the family’s acquisition.
Michael and Sarah obtained works by Matisse and maintained an intimate relationship with the artist. They even supported Matisse financially to open an art school and Sarah attended a course there. Two of her drawings are on display at the exhibition. The Stein and Matisse famililies went to vacation in Florence together and Matisse drew pictures of Allan, the son of Michael and Sarah.
The Stein’s residences in Paris were open to those interested in contemporary art. They not only collected great works, but invited people to see and talk about them.
They introduced radical art from France to the United States when they returned there after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Matisse’s raw, colorful paintings shocked the local art community.
Later when the prices of Picasso’s paintings went way above what she thought acceptable Gertrude turned to less established artists such as Andre Masson. She was always open to young, rising painters.
“The Steins were true champions of modernism, embracing and defending new art as it was first being made and before it was met with widespread acceptance. They not only avidly collected works when the artists most needed support, but also enthusiastically opened their modest Left Bank homes to anyone wishing to see the most radical art of the day,” Janet Bishop, co-curator of SFMOMA said.
The exhibition runs through Sept. 6 at SFMOMA and will travel to Grand Palais in Paris from October to January 2012 and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York from February to June 2012. Visit www.sfmoma.org for more information.