Picasso

"After decades as the 'mama of Dada' or less, Gertrude Stein is now suddenly somebody...In the world [of the Art Establishment] 'value' is a function of relentless publicity, and the Gertrude Stein we are currently being offered is largely controlled by the Picasso Holding Company...[The 1923 work] is authentic Steinese and OK because sui generis. It tells no lies and is seldom addictive. You can take it or leave it, and small doses can exhilarate. In this book it comports with the plates The long essay is different; it makes as if to inform us, but always, in the clinches, goes pseudo-Delphic. How useful this is, how catalyzing, depends on what you have in your mind already, which again is OK if you don't expect authoritative light. If you buy the book, you'll have bought a chunk of history, as mute and in its way as authentic as a fossil. You'll have to decide if you want to spend $17.50."Stein, Gertrude is the author of 'Picasso', published 1984 under ISBN 9780486247151 and ISBN 0486247155.