While exploring Gertrude Stein’s published works in the Robert A. Wilson collection, I found that Stein was featured in four issues of Broom: An International Magazine Of The Arts. Three of these issues contain parts of Stein’s “If You Had Three Husbands”, published throughout January, April, and June of 1922. In addition, Broom published Stein’s short text “Wear,” in January 1923. This is a lot of contributions from Stein, especially since the magazine was only published within three years. Stein isn’t the only Modernist writer published in Broom, the magazine contains poems, prose, reviews, art reproductions, and original covers that are rooted in the Modernist and Dada movements. Notably, a large portion of these contributions are from women. This is significant as at this time, female artists were often disregarded by male artists and publishers. To narrow the scope of investigation as to how Broom was able to provide a platform for experimental female artists and writers, I will examine Stein’s text “Wear” in relation to the cover of the January 1923 issue by Natalia Gontcharova.
Context for Broom
Broom: An International Magazine Of The Arts was published from 1920-1924 (Suarez). The statement from the editor that is printed below the table of contents (pictured below) signifies that the magazine received submissions of manuscripts to be considered for the magazine. The covers of Broom stood out from many of the other objects in the collection due to their distinct woodcut printings (two of which are pictured above). Broom commissioned different artists to design the woodcuts and there is a compelling balance between recognizability and uniqueness when comparing magazine volumes.
Stein in Broom
The January 1923 issue of Broom, Vol. 4 No. 2, which includes Stein’s text “Wear” as well as Gontcharova’s cover, offers the perfect stage for a more focused investigation of the magazine’s gender dynamics. “ Wear” uses the expected style of a Stein work, but also contains themes and subjects that were popular among all types of artists following the First World War. From The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, we know that the war was a critical time for Stein. She was involved as an ambulance driver and was able to see the war from this position. Though this perspective differs from those of the combatants who wrote and created art during and after the war, living through this event impacted nearly everyone, and this can be seen in the works of Stein and the other women in this volume. The subject of war is usually discussed by men, but Stein and other women featured in Broom show that themes can be used in art and writing regardless of gender. Examining “Wear”, we can see how the underlying violent language such as “poison” and the line “Did the war make you dash right in” can easily be connected to the “masculine” concept of war and its effect on society. “Wear” could have countless interpretations, but, as with many of Stein’s shorter works, especially her portraits, it seems rooted in the emotions it evokes, using words to communicate more abstract feelings. It plays around with routine, accepting norms, and “fitting in”, all of which were disrupted by the war.
Gontcharova in Broom
The table of contents for this volume (pictured above) indicates that several other contributors, besides Stein, were women. From the names mentioned in The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, we know that many of the artists Stein interacted with were men—but in this issue of Broom, we see Stein “collaborating”, in a sense, with women such as Natalia Gontcharova, Marianne Moore, Kay Boyle, and more. Even the front cover features a work by a woman. This cover includes a woodcut designed by Natalia Gontcharova, a Russian painter who was living in Paris at the time of publication. In the 1910s, Gontcharova began experimenting with cubism which shaped her artistic style in the following decades (Ackerman). As Picasso was one of Stein’s closest friends, her relation to cubism is well documented and we know she drew inspiration from the works of the cubist artists around her. In many ways, cubism shaped how she utilized language to describe the world around her. Many of the negative critiques of Stein’s writing—that she was nonsensical or lacking skill, for example—are similar to the negative critiques of cubism. So it is very interesting to see that Stein’s contribution to this issue of Broom puts her in direct contact with a cubist artist—particularly, an artist she does not mention in the Autobiography.
Another interesting similarity between Stein and Gontcharova is that they both built communities that served to create and share art. Stein did this through her salons, and Gontcharova created and participated in both The Jack of Diamonds group in 1910 and The Donkey Tail group in 1912 (Ackerman). Even though Stein and Gontcharova created their own artistic community, they benefited from having a magazine like Broom that presented a context with which to view and compare their works with the other featured artists. For example, we can compare how Gontcharova’s woodcut and Stein’s “Wear” relate to the theme of war. As Gontcharova does not include any imagery besides the text, the focus of the cover is on the word “Broom” which she has made to look like “Boom” due to the way that the letter “R” is hidden. The onomatopoeia “boom” is associated with explosions and bombs and could be a connection that Gontcharova was making to the war. Though there wasn’t the same community or interactions between the contributors of Broom as there were within Stein and Gontcharova’s groups, it is clear that Broom prioritized creating an accessible platform for artists and writers who struggled to have their works sold or published. Whether it be Stien’s “Wear,” Gontcharova’s woodcut, or any of the other works listed in the table of contents, Broom has managed to connect this international list of creative minds that is inclusive of female voices and illustrates the ways that artists, authors, poets, and critics were discussing and interpreting the same ideas without ever being in conversation with each other.
Works Cited
Ackerman, Ada. “Natalia Gontcharova.” Aware. Web. <https://awarewomenartists.com/en/artiste/natalia-gontcharova/>.
Stein, Gertrude, Alice B. Toklas, and Robert A. (Robert Alfred) Wilson. The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas: Illustrated. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1933.
Stein, Gertrude, and Robert A. (Robert Alfred) Wilson. Wear., 1923.
Suarez, Jillian. “Broom: An International Magazine of the Arts.” Guggenheim. March 13, 2014. Web. <https://www.guggenheim.org/articles/findings/broom-international-magazine-arts>.
CURATING GERTRUDE STEIN 