The Cubist painter renounced the work of artists who only drew what society wanted to see as art. Instead of painting for admirers of conventional art, Cubist painters assembled forms and movement from different angles to create a completely innovative artistic perspective. Like the Cubist artist, Gertrude Stein, a 20th-century modernist writer, rejected the expectations of a society that required writing to shape the discourse of the English language just as it required art to shape visions and still-life images of situations daily lives and experiences. Stein's writing is often compared to the visual art of modernist painting, such as Duchamp's 1913 Armory Show work, Nude Descending a Staircase No. 2, in which he uses Cubist techniques. Duchamp and Stein rely heavily on illusion to move audiences from the constraints of conventional art to a modernist mindset that sees art for what it is rather than a representation of something else. These two artists realize this idea through the speed and rhythm contained in each work, the unlikely associations created between the elements of each piece, and the creation of multiplicity and simultaneity within each work. Nude descending the stairs n. Duchamp's 2 maintains a constant speed through the illusion of movement. Duchamp used the technique of superimposing the phases of movement of a figure descending a staircase to create angles that do not present a still life frame of a figure posed in a specific movement, but instead create a scene of constant movement that does not stop within. the frame of the painting. Similarly, in “Tender Buttons,” Stein creates a rhythm within the text by layering disjointed words and thoughts in separate sections. This tech...... middle of paper...... resembles the paintings of the Cubist movement. The work of Cubist painters such as Marchel Duchamp stylistically parallels Stein's writing. The Cubist movement emphasized the power of the individual mind to create an artistic image separate from society's expectations of art. Gertrude Stein's work, similarly, aims to channel the reader into a self-directed interpretation of words in order to form a personalized image found in Stein's art just as Cubist artists used techniques to remove the mind of the spectator from social constraints. Works Cited Stein, Gertrude. “Soft Buttons.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature: Volume D. Ed. Nina Baym. New York: Norton & Company, 2003. 1164-1174."The Armory Show of 1913." (Gallery I): Nude descending the stairs, n. 2. 2001. American Studies at the University of Virginia. October 13th 2006 .