QuoteProject
The creator of the new composition in the arts is an outlaw until he is a classic.
Gertrude Stein
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Innovative artists often face criticism, but their work may eventually be recognized and celebrated.

Gertrude Stein's quote reflects the idea that those who create groundbreaking art often challenge existing norms and conventions, facing backlash and rejection in their time. However, as time passes, their contributions can be reevaluated, and they may be embraced as classics, signifying a transformation from being an outsider to an essential part of the artistic canon.

Themes

ArtCreationInnovationAcceptanceLegacy

In practice

Example use cases

This quote is perfect for an art class discussing the evolution of artistic styles.

More from Gertrude Stein

. . . money . . . is really the difference between men and animals, most of the things men feel, animals feel, and vice versa, but animals do not know about money.
Gertrude SteinRead
If the communication is perfect, the words have life, and that is all there is to good writing, putting down on the paper words which dance and weep and make love and fight and kiss and perform miracles.
Gertrude SteinRead
The United States is just now the oldest country in the world, there always is an oldest country and she is it, it is she who is the mother of the twentieth century civilization. She began to feel herself as it just after the Civil War. And so it is a country the right age to have been born in and the wrong age to live in.
Gertrude SteinRead
I simply contend that the middle-class ideal which demands that people be affectionate, respectable, honest and content, that they avoid excitements and cultivate serenity is the ideal that appeals to me, it is in short the ideal of affectionate family life, of honorable business methods.
Gertrude SteinRead
It is natural to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes to that siren until she allures us to our death.
Gertrude SteinRead
Anything one does every day is important and imposing and anywhere one lives is interesting and beautiful.
Gertrude SteinRead

Similar quotes

Drawing takes time. A line has time in it
David HockneyRead
God does not ask for 'religious' art or 'Catholic' art. The art he wants for himself is Art, with all its teeth
Jacques MaritainRead
In all the creative work that I have done, what has come first is a problem, a puzzle involving discomfort.
Bertrand RussellRead
I personally would like to bring a tortoise onto the stage, turn it into a racehorse, then into a hat, a song, a dragoon and a fountain of water. One can dare anything in the theatre and it is the place where one dares the least.
Eugene IonescoRead
Nothing is contrived. At night, the clothes should pour like liquid over the body.
Oscar De La RentaRead
Novels attempt to render human experience; that's really all they are. They are meant to convey empathy for the character.
Sue Monk KiddRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.

Quote by Gertrude Stein | QuoteProject