Sunday, April 15, 2012

Like Eliot on Henry James, or what he wasn't. Leo Stein in 1913
Both [Picasso] & Gertrude are using their intellects, which they ain't got, to do what would need the finest critical tact, which they ain't got neither, and they are in my belief turning out the most go'almighty rubbish that is to be found.
He was right, except that in Picasso's case "Analytical" Cubism is still brilliant fakery. It's bullshit made physically compelling, full of sound and fury.
The Steins Collect At the Met.

It becomes clear how much the breakthrough work from 1906 was a response to Matisse, and to a competitor. Picasso didn't originate the blocky roughness that became Cubism; he appropriated it.

They've borrowed a Rubens and pulled another out of storage.
Gallery 629 - Rubens and Van Dyck. A great room. The best of Hollywood.
Delacroix to Manet: "Look at Rubens, draw inspiration from Rubens, copy Rubens. Rubens was God!"
I laugh in that room.

They have a loaner del Sarto next to the two in their collection.
Gallery 608
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And I forgot to mention the Rembrandt, on loan from Kenwood House, London. "It's nice too." Allan Sherman

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