Why Do Something If It Can Be Done: Quoting Gertrude Stein # 15

November 20th, 2009

Rose tattoo109A rose is a rose by any other name… When I researched Stein photographs and texts for my photobiography I happened upon the man who created this amazing rose tattoo — an homage to Gertrude Stein. He turned out to be not only a tattoo artist but a writer, had worked with Kinsey on his sexual studies, and… been an intimate friend of Gertrude and Alice. Read the rest of this entry »

Gertrude Stein Blog: follow the link!

November 3rd, 2009

I am  relaunching my photobiography of Gertrude Stein with a blog on She Writes: “Why Do Something If It Can Be Done: Quoting Gertrude Stein”:

http://www.shewrites.com/profiles/blogs/why-do-something-if-it-can-be

“Who was Gertrude Stein? The social and artistic dominatrix of the lost generation? The literary founder of modernism? The sensual companion of Alice B. Toklas? A ‘dictator of art’ or an ‘infant prodigy’? Stein, whose freedom with the written word ‘liberated language from the nineteenth century,’ remains a heroine hard to grasp.
Now Renate Stendhal’s Gertrude Stein: In Words and Pictures (Algonquin) takes a good look at the slippery genius. After an astonishing, playful essay, the book opens into a revelatory combination of quotes, clips, and 360 photos of Stein and her wildly brilliant circle. The subtle minimalism of Stein’s cool face, repeating page to page like her own rhythmic sentences, brings a nuanced embodiment to our imcomplete sense of her. From a serious, chin-in-air profile of ‘Gertie’ at age three to a chin-in-hands portrait taken at age seventy-two, the woman is ‘a rose is a rose is a rose.’” ELLE Magazine


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Luc Bondy vs Zefirelli At The Met

November 2nd, 2009

Was the great Karita Mattila miscast in the role of Tosca?

Read the review  http://www.scene4.com/1109/renatestendhal-r1109.html

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Report from a Trip Home: A Discovery in Germany

November 1st, 2009

Stumbling Stones

Article at http://www.scene4.com/archivesqv6/nov-2009/1109/renatestendhal-i1109.html