"Portrait of Gertrude Stein" Pablo Picasso (1906)

Autobiography or Self-Portrait

After Gertrude Stein’s The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas

It was this time, it was
now. It was only this

time this short time after
some other this time that

Picasso painted did paint
this portrait of Gertrude Stein

that is now sitting here, is
now so known, known so

widely. How do we know
or how do I know or how

do either of them know about
how the image came about

how did it come about. Vague.
It is vague. The story of how

the image came into existence,
how Picasso decided to make

the image come into existence,
is vague. I have heard that it is

vague. They remember the rue
de Fleurus as the rue de Fleurus

where Picasso dined. They
remember his first time dining

there. Much else is a blank.
The rue Ravigan is not a blank.

Place tends not to be blank,
not to be a blank, but the place of

this portrait is a blank. Figuratively.
The figurative place of this portrait

is a blank. Never not a blank,
seeming never not to be a blank,

not to be a blank for Picasso, also
never not to be a blank for

Gertrude Stein. For me,
a blank also, also a blank.

What we know. What we
do not know. What do

we not know.

Gertrude, Alice and Basket

Biography or Self

After “Autobiography or Self-Portrait,” itself after Gertrude Stein’s The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas

Time now.
What does it

mean for now to be this
or this to be now, this

being now. Was it this
time only this time was

it this short time after
some time other than this

time some other time
that her portrait was painted.

That he painted her portrait,
that the painting was painted

as a portrait of her. We
do not know what is

it that he or she does not
know or what do I know.

What do any of us
know about this

portrait, this portrait
not being now but this

portrait any way. Any
place, or any time. Any

way this portrait is
vague. Vague to me

because it is her or I
wonder if it is vague

to her because it is
her or only to me because

she is not me or would it
be increasingly so if

the portrait painted were me
and not she.

It is vague to him, the portrait
is vague. Blank and vague.

Where we are, where we are
and were is vague. Figurative. It

is figurative. I know what it means
for this to be blank, even for it to be

vague, vague or blank, it is
vague that to know what it

means for a blank to exist
is not vague, a blank is not

vague.