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About this quote

What does it mean?
Stein argues that innovators in art are initially rejected but later celebrated as classics.
In plain terms
New artists are seen as outlaws until they become famous classics.
What can you take from it?
Innovation often faces initial rejection.

Where it applies

  • art criticism
  • career development
  • cultural shifts

Putting it to work

  • Supporting new artists
  • Understanding art history
  • Building a career

Questions to consider

  • How do we judge new art?
  • Is being an outlaw a sign of quality?

Another view

Not all outlaws become classics; some remain obscure.

More from Gertrude Stein

  1. It is hard living down the tempers we are born with. We all begin well, for in our youth there is nothing we are more intolerant of than our own sins writ larg…

    Permalink to quote #30
  2. No one is ahead of his time, it is only that the particular variety of creating his time is the one that his contemporaries who are also creating their own tim…

    Permalink to quote #32
  3. Repeating then is in every one, in every one their being and their feeling and their way of realizing everything and every one comes out of them in repeating. …

    Permalink to quote #29

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