ABSTRACT
At the beginning of the twentieth century Gertrude Stein and Eric Satie were seeking for a freshness and a childlike simplicity in their work. Gertrude Stein, who spoke of ‘beginning again and again’, explored the relationships of words, parts of speech and the use of the present tense. Satie went back as far as medieval and Greek modes of musical composition, eschewing sonorities, and attempting to make every note audible. Brancusi, the sculptor, was also seeking for a greater simplicity in his work. He would take a single form, such as the egg, as the basis of his sculpture, and try to find the essential form behind the recognizable exterior. These three, united by a common search for the primal in art, became close friends.
