Resumen de Unmasking Pablo's Gertrude: queer desire and the subject of portraiture
This essay examines the function of the mask in Picasso's Portrait of Gertrude Stein, 1906, in relation to the artist's anxious confrontation with lesbian sexuality and his own gendered identity. In examining the portrait as a performative event between the artist and the sitter, the essay attempts to shed light on the significance of the delay in Picasso's completion of the painting and the problem of gender instability in his art over the course of 1906–7. Recent work in gender and queer studies provides the theoretical armature for the argument. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
