After Lyon, where Marie Sorbier showed us the Lumière Festival and Sens Interdits, Le Grand Tour now stops in Paris to visit the new exhibition at the Musée du Luxembourg: Gertrude Stein and Pablo Picasso: The Invention of Language. This exhibition is dedicated to the American poet as part of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of Pablo Picasso’s death. Stein and Picasso crossed paths early on in their respective arrivals in Paris at the beginning of the 20th century, and from this encounter arose both a deep friendship and a intense mutual influence, intellectual and artistic.
But this exhibition, beyond its connection to Picasso, is also an opportunity to highlight the work of the American poet. Although relatively unknown in France, Gertrude Stein achieved great success in the United States from the 1930s onward for her critical writings, novels, plays, and poems. Her work profoundly influenced the American avant-garde after World War II, as well as contemporary creation in literature, music, theater, and visual arts.
The museum rooms display various works inspired by Gertrude Stein’s writings, also highlighting the modernity of her work and her persona, as explained by Cécile Debray, one of the exhibition’s curators: “Today, indeed, there is a renewed interest in Gertrude Stein in recent years, because she was perhaps one of the first to think about the question of queerness [gender and sexuality]. She represents many aspects and characteristics that will resonate with artists who work on the question of gender, minority, homosexuality, or sexual freedom.”
But while this exhibition allows for the (re)discovery of Gertrude Stein’s work and legacy, it is also an opportunity to hear her distinct language. The Musée du Luxembourg organizes public readings of her texts every Monday as part of a cycle conceived by director Ludovic Lagarde. In this episode, Marie Sorbier attends a reading of an excerpt from the collection Lectures in America (1935) by actress Christèle Tual. This is an original way to bring Gertrude Stein’s genius and modernity back to life.
