The Originals-Women in Art; Georgia O'Keeffe

This is Okie country land the painter Georgia O'Keeffe made indelibly her own Northern New Mexico transformed the artist worked and changed her life. If that was my country. I've never seen anything like it before but it fitted to make Thank you. They are at. Different The. Value of. Their. Cars are different the wind. Came in 29 and I think I stayed about two months and then. I had a very good year with you. Then. Maybe I stayed longer every year. The first summer in New Mexico resulted in a torrent of new paintings that continued unabated for decades. 934 O'Keefe discovered the spectacular beauty of an area known as

Ghost Ranch north of Santa Fe. For more than 40 years he spent every summer and fall in this adobe house. She'll be working outdoors and in the studio. She wrote to a friend. It's the most wonderful place you can imagine. It's so beautiful. It's ridiculous. And I have this mountain the Pender now God told me that if I painted it often enough he would give it to me. New Mexico gave O'Keefe the privacy and solitude that were essential to her. Where she could live in intimate contact with nature. For nature was the true source of her art.

If we understand Georgio piece intense emotional response to nature. And our need to create an equivalent in art. We hold the key. To her work. You know keeps native Wisconsin where she first made art. Nature was her subject. In her twenties as an art student in Chicago and New York. She could easily imitate the work of other artist but this was of no interest to a kid. She stopped painting. That was all academic. You were talked to a paint job like somebody else. Made me not want to paint a tall one printer or why.

She found her own way to the teachings of Arthur doubt in his writing. The approach to our. Business idea was to put it simply to fill a space in a beautiful way. You know what I do. She started to work again. But with a difference. In 1015 use nature as a point of departure and began a series of abstract experiments. Unusual for an American artist at that time. Her letters reveal herself that. I wonder if I'm a raving lunatic for trying to make these things. In December 19 16 she sent some of these charcoal drawings to a close friend in New York. Anita pilots are immediately showed them to Alfred Stieglitz Stieglitz was already famous as a great photographer leader in the fight for recognition of photography as an art form. And first champion of Modern Art in America. At his legendary gallery in New York City

known as 2 9 1. Stieglitz excited response to the originality of Okies charcoal drawings would be matched six months later by his reaction to the artist in person. He would show 10 of her innovative drawings in a group show in one thousand sixteen. That fall O'Keefe went off to teach in Canyon Texas. In the vast plains of the panhandle. In dozens of abstract water colors and oils she expressed her fascination with the natural phenomenon of Texas. The steep canyons the dazzling sun ra s. Evening Star that came out while it was still day. Right. Attaching a six cent stamp to a mailing to. Send a roll of watercolors to Stieglitz astonished by the color an abstract vision.

Stiglitz gave O'Keefe her first solo show in April 1917. When she traveled from Texas to New York. It was only partially to see her pictures on the walls of 2 9 1 Stieglitz. Well it was him I went up to see. Just had to go Anita. And I'm so glad I went. For nearly a year O'Keefe and Stiglitz have been writing constantly to each other letters that were a revelation to both. They discovered that they saw the world through similar eyes and they fell in love. In June 1989. O'KEEFE left Texas for New York. Stieglitz had promised her a year in which she would be free to paint. O'Keefe and Stiglitz lived in New York City. And spent the summers at Lake George New York. They inspired and influenced each other's work.

Stiglitz photographed his love in a landmark series of more than 300 photographs. O'KEEFE painted her joy. Between 1900 and one thousand twenty three. She created some of the most original and significant abstractions of American modernism. However. Before these paintings were exhibited a traumatic experience changed the direction and in Phasis of her work at his 1921 retrospective Alfred Stiglitz showed forty five portraits of O'Keefe including many intimate nudes.

These photographs and what Stiglitz said and wrote about her work created an image of O'Keefe for critics and public as a sensual and sexual creature. Two years later at the first major show in New York of more than 100 of O'Keefe paintings the critics took their cue from Stiglitz and described her work but especially her abstractions as expressions of her sexuality. O'KEEFE shocked and disheartened by these interpretations. Turned to recognizable subjects. Pairs where pears and flowers were flowers. Large scale flowers influence most likely by photography. Added a new dimension to the tradition of flower painting. But alas. These two. Would receive an analysis. Although Keith became known for her paintings of recognizable forms.

She never abandoned abstraction. But whatever she painted it was her fusion of the abstract and the real world that gave solidity and strength. To her painting. It was good in the abstract. It wouldn't have been much good to pay the price. OK so New York paintings combining abstraction and reality show her interest in modernist photography. At the time she was told. What are you going to paint New York for in a way you can't do that the men haven't even done very well with it. What do you think you're going to do. The 20s brought O'Keeffe recognition and great success. The paintings were praised by critics and bought by collectors. In 1024 O'Keefe and Stiglitz were married.

Their marriage lasted until his death in 1946. Yet by the end of the 20s the painter who loved open spaces and color was feeling stifled. She wrote to a friend. Here at Lake George. Everything is very green. I look around and wonder what one might paint. In one thousand twenty nine. She spent the summer in New Mexico. Georgia O'Keeffe had known she was searching for a spiritual home. But she knew. And she found. You know I never feel at home in the east like I do out here. I feel like myself and I like it. She settled permanently in New Mexico in one nine hundred forty nine. Living at Ghost Ranch or in the small village of ABBA que.

When was the glitz and Di and I had settled with the state and I could live where I wanted to but nothing holding me in a big city. I came here I always knew I'd live there if I had a chance. With the collaboration of photographers and journalist. Keith redefined herself on her own terms. And in a mode vastly different from the Stiglitz. She became an iconic mythic figure. The loner in the desert. Conceal behind these facades was another personality. Known mainly to close friends. Lively. Witty. And very human. O'Keefe has said it takes courage to be a parent. I always felt I walked on the edge of the knife.

With a knife I might fall off on either side but I would walk again. What would you do. Oh I'd rather be doing something I really wanted to do.