Georgia O’Keeffe never piled on the paint. She worked wet-into-dry, pretty much a single layer of paint requiring serious control to choreograph her textural effects. Within this narrow range that she chose to work, her variations are virtuosic.
Tag Archives | artworks
Georgia O’Keeffe’s final paintings
In case you missed my zoom talk, it’s now available online! It’s my first reading from the work-in-progress: Digging for Stars: The Art of Georgia O’Keeffe. I won’t deny it — the debut was nerve-wracking. My thanks go out to Susan Post of BookWoman and Stephanie Lowe for making it happen. In her late-80s, nearly […]
You’re invited!
After years of researching and writing, I am giving my first public talk from my book manuscript, “Digging for Stars: The Art of Georgia O’Keeffe.” The talk is FREE, and it’s ONLINE hosted by the fabulous BookWoman bookstore, so you can attend, no matter where you are! Tune in this coming Tuesday, February 22, at […]
Georgia O’Keeffe, Photographer
Georgia O’Keeffe spent 30 years with the legendary American photographer Alfred Stieglitz. She worked alongside him, posed for him, and even spotted prints for him. But she knew not a lick about taking photographs. “Stieglitz used to say I knew less about photography than anybody he ever knew,” she told a journalist in 1962. “Yet, […]
O’Keeffe: rapturous possibilities
I had the experience, once, of viewing an O’Keeffe exhibit that made me question what I had ever admired in the artist. The paintings felt curiously lifeless, and as a whole the show didn’t seem to add up to much. O’Keeffe understood early on that the way paintings are hung determine how they are perceived. […]
Holiday greetings from Georgia O’Keeffe
“Starlight Night” (1917) featured on Georgia O’Keeffe’s Christmas card in 1963. Georgia O’Keeffe was not religious in the institutional sense, but she was deeply spiritual and certainly enjoyed a good ritual. She usually celebrated Christmas with friends, and sent Christmas cards, including one in 1963 that reproduced her 1917 masterpiece, “Starlight Night” (above). In the […]
Georgia O’Keeffe: Look for yourself
“White Flower,” 1932. Abby Aldrich Rockefeller gave this Georgia O’Keeffe painting to the College of William & Mary to mark the artist’s honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts. (Copyright Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, ARS) (Muscarelle Museum of Art) That Kate Alfriend must have been one heck of a charmer. In 1938, Georgia O’Keeffe made no speech when […]
O’Keeffe: against interpretation
Georgia O’Keeffe may be the most egregiously over-interpreted artist of all time. The interpretations, and the narratives, have gotten so thick that it’s hard to see past them to the paintings. This 1935 review, one of my favorites, is a clear view to the paintings, “freed [ . . .] from literalism.” “So intensely felt […]
How Georgia O’Keeffe wanted “The Eggplant” framed
I’m on my way to view the Georgia O’Keeffe retrospective at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) this week, and as I was rooting around the museum’s website, I found this fabulous video. It shows (without audio) the reframing of “The Eggplant” (1924), the first Canadian-owned O’Keeffe painting. What makes this reframing significant is that […]
But wait, there’s more about “Bear Lake”
Thanks to Georgia O’Keeffe researcher Joe Chase, who lives in Sun Prairie, Wis., where the artist was born, for sending along another image of “Mountain at Bear Lake — Taos” (1930) at the White House! He’s a leader at the Sun Prairie Historical Library & Museum, and generous with his knowledge. Apparently, Republicans were upset […]
Ode to “Mountain at Bear Lake — Taos”
When last we met I told the story of how Hillary Clinton brought Georgia O’Keeffe’s “Mountain at Bear Lake — Taos” (1930) to the White House. Now I’d like to share videos by two young women paying homage to that painting. Lauren Blankenship and Natalia Gabrielsen were two of the winners of “This Art is […]
Georgia O’Keeffe in the White House
Hard to believe, but 20 years ago the White House permanent art collection included no women. In 1997 First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton convinced the Committee for the Preservation of the White House to accept “Mountain at Bear Lake — Taos” (1930) by Georgia O’Keeffe. Acquired under the title “Bear Lake, New Mexico,” the oil […]