O'Keeffe by Janet Souter

Author:Janet Souter [Souter, Janet]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781783107476
Publisher: Parkstone International

Abstraction — Alexius, 1928. Oil on canvas,

91.4 x 76.2 cm. Private collection, Switzerland.

Wave, Night, 1928.

Oil on canvas, 76.2 x 91.4 cm.

Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover.

Out Back of Marie’s IV, 1931.

Oil on canvas, 40.6 x 76.2 cm.

The Georgia O’Keeffe Foundation,

Gift of the Burnett Foundation.

Purple Hills II, Ghost Ranch,

New Mexico, 1934.

Oil on canvas, 41.3 x 76.8 cm.

The Georgia O’Keeffe Foundation,

Gift of the Burnett Foundation.

The gatherings at the Luhan home were far more lively in than those at which Stieglitz presided over in New York. Taos had already attained the image of an artists’ colony, most of whom were transplants from the East. Brightly colored Indian blankets, a blazing fire and several bottles of wine added to the festivities. Georgia enjoyed evenings with Spud Johnson, publisher of the local magazine, Laughing Horse. Photographer Ansel Adams, working on a project for the Sierra Club, was a frequent guest. She met Daniel Catton Rich, who worked at the Art Institute of Chicago. Years later, he invited her to exhibition in a retrospective at the museum. Often Tony Luhan arranged to have his fellow Pueblo tribesmen perform dancing exhibitions.

Other evenings Georgia rode horseback to the edge of the mountains, feeling not tiny but in synchronization with the wideness, the almost endless horizon. Eventually she felt the need for more freedom and time to get in touch with the land on her own. She purchased a black Model A Ford in Taos and several people, including Dorothy Brett and Tony Luhan, took turns teaching her to drive. Most of her instructors came back from the lessons in a state of nervous agitation, for Georgia was, as Mabel Luhan described, “a demon driver.”

But more significant was the fact that she found new subject matter, a new vision, and a wealth of new paintings. Her first Black Crosses were painted during that summer. The crosses that appeared across the landscape were planted by the devout Spanish Catholics (penitentes) as they systematically occupied the Indian territory in the nineteenth century. In Black Cross, New Mexico, the black shape so completely dominates the picture that the viewer may feel he is standing just behind it gazing at the last vestiges of the retreating sunset beyond the rolling, smoke-like hills. Ranchos Church, also painted that year, emphasizes the sparse adobe architecture that seems to rise out of the New Mexico desert.

When Georgia returned to Lake George in September, she was delighted to find that Alfred was stronger and in much better health. They spent a few days in Maine, before returning to the lake, and finally in November, they closed up the cottage and made the trip back to their New York apartment. Stieglitz was so impressed with her New Mexico paintings, that he insisted she exhibit them in a group show, Paintings by Nineteen Living Americans at the newly opened Museum of Modern Art. Although the show provided a fair amount of publicity for O’Keeffe and Stieglitz’s other artists, critical reaction was generally lukewarm.

Earlier that year, the Intimate Gallery had closed when the building that housed the Anderson Gallery was sold.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.