American poet Gertrude Stein often used to remind Picasso of the
meaning of things. She taught him to look at the world with simplicity
and breadth. Her portrait shows her as simple, large and strong. Her
person occupies the entire painting with her volume and apparently
fills it with her meaning.
a. schug

r.graudy
The great turnaround sparked by Picasso happened around 1906-1907. The portrait of Gertrude Stein may be taken as the beginning
of an era. Characteristically, after the first sitting Gertrude Stein and her brother claimed they were completely satisfied. Picasso, however, demanded ninety more sittings and then destroyed everything he had done and went away for several months. After returning, he painted the portrait in the absence of his model and when Gertrude Stein, shaken, asked whether it really looked like her, Picasso calmly answered: "You are going to look like it one day". This is more than an anecdote: it is a concept of painting and its relation to reality.

information
that provides the foundation for
theories and histories of art
is unreliable
therefore theories and history
lose their utilitarian value
with information of the
legend-generating type
instead of history
mythology is formed
and instead of a critical analysis of
the activity of a man who may or may have not been in prison
because of his resistance or ideas
but certainly had not stopped playing since childhood
even marxist critics create a myth of the hero of rebellion
hero of thought
and a genius