This story was originally published by ArtsATL.
One often thinks of Georgia O’Keeffe as the quintessential American woman artist who painted large flowers and bones placed against the backdrop of the Southwestern landscape. O’Keeffe’s urban landscapes — as seen in “Georgia O’Keeffe: My New Yorks,” at the High Museum of Art through Feb. 16 — reveal a different side of this artist.
Time and place collapse through these luminous, powerful paintings, drawings and photographs made in New York City in the 1920s. Midtown Atlanta, which is currently undergoing a surge of new construction of tall buildings that are engulfing the city, is a delectable context in which to see these works a century after they were made.
O’Keeffe is one of the most popular artists of the 20th century. Often perceived as the sole American woman artist of her generation, she is much better known than male contemporaries Arthur Dove, John Marin, Marsden Hartley and Charles Demuth.
Credit: Photo © Georgia O'Keeffe Museum/Peter S. Jacobs
Credit: Photo © Georgia O'Keeffe Museum/Peter S. Jacobs
It may be that her popularity has stood in the way of her work being taken seriously ― too many calendars, greeting cards and posters have been marketed. And whereas appearances on the cover of Life magazine enhanced the fame of artists such as Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol, the magazine’s cover article for March 1, 1968, headlined “Stark Visions of a Pioneer Painter,” may have done O’Keeffe more harm than good by promoting the romantic image of the woman artist austerely photographed in the New Mexico desert.
O’Keeffe became a pastiche of the idea of an artist, which sadly stopped many from seriously looking at her art. Marketing masked the work’s radical significance and brilliance. This is the time for a fresh look at O’Keeffe’s art, her groundbreaking abstraction and luminous paintings.
In 1924, O’Keeffe was newly wed to art dealer and photographer Alfred Stieglitz when they moved into the Shelton Hotel, which became the subject of several of the paintings in “My New Yorks.” This hotel was marketed specifically to artists as a place to live and work; there is a flyer advertising this delightful idea in the exhibition.
The Shelton is still a hotel (now a Marriott), but one where few artists can afford to stay for months at a time. Stieglitz and O’Keeffe lived at the Shelton part time, spending their summers at the Stieglitz family compound in Lake George, New York. At the time, the Shelton was the tallest residential building in the world at 31 stories. The iconic Chrysler building (construction began in 1928) and the Empire State Building (construction began in 1931) had yet to be built.
Credit: Photo © The Art Institute of Chicago
Credit: Photo © The Art Institute of Chicago
It was not easy for O’Keeffe as a woman artist in the 1920s. When Stieglitz curated his pivotal exhibition “Seven Americans” in 1925, he included O’Keeffe but told her she could not show her cityscapes — only her paintings of vegetables and flowers. It is all too easy to imagine this maddening arrogance toward the artist’s work because her spouse and gallerist at the same time championed her art.
“My New Yorks” was curated by Annelise K. Madsen and Sarah Kelly Oehler for the Art Institute of Chicago, where the exhibition originated. At the High, the exhibition begins with O’Keeffe’s “New York Street with Moon” (1925). This luminous oil painting walks a line between representation and geometric abstraction, looking up at the tall building where O’Keeffe lived in Midtown Manhattan to a romantic representation of the moon in a turquoise sky with curvilinear clouds.
O’Keeffe carves out an abstract geometry from the space between the buildings juxtaposed with the circular glow of a streetlamp and the red round of a traffic signal that echo the moon in shape. O’Keeffe’s vision of an urban landscape of night skies and tall buildings lifts you up with its deft beauty and abstraction.
Credit: Photo © Georgia O'Keeffe Museum
Credit: Photo © Georgia O'Keeffe Museum
In the following year, O’Keeffe revisits the exterior of the Shelton Hotel, again at street level, but this time during the day and seen from the perspective of her residence as in the 1925 painting. “The Shelton with Sunspots, N.Y.” (1926) is a vertical composition where the sky drapes around the building. The sunspots flickering around the canvas must have been informed by photography; the circular spots could be reflections in the lens of a camera.
The vertical composition of this geometric painting cuts through the center of the painting with a glowing and warm palette. One can imagine O’Keeffe’s emotional response to the new urban landscape of the modernist city, the skyscraper as the star of the composition.
Credit: Photo © The Art Institute of Chicago
Credit: Photo © The Art Institute of Chicago
There are other works in the exhibition that are not cityscapes but nevertheless reflect the dynamism of the city. In the last gallery on the first tier of the exhibition is “Ballet Skirt or Electric Light” from 1927, which is a canopy of white strokes so radiant that the painting seems to be lit from within.
Hung next to this work is another masterpiece, “Abstraction Blue” from 1927, a powerful composition divided by a vertical split in the center of the canvas whose palette ranges from blue to pink to the darkest indigo. This painting recalls an iris just as the title of “Electric Light” recalls a light fixture or ballet skirt, but color and light transform the viewpoint of both paintings into one of deep spirituality that conjures the presence of the natural world through abstraction.
These works can now be seen in the context of how modernism was developing in the early 20th century and O’Keeffe’s role in its development. The brilliance of “My New Yorks” is that O’Keeffe can finally be appreciated as an innovative and radical artist of her century.
ART REVIEW
“Georgia O’Keeffe: My New Yorks”
Through Feb. 16 at the High Museum of Art.
10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays; noon to 5 p.m. Sundays. $23.50. 1280 Peachtree St. NE, Atlanta. 404-733-4400, high.org.
::
Deanna Sirlin is an artist and writer. She is known internationally for large-scale installations that have covered the sides of buildings from Atlanta to Venice, Italy. Her book, “She’s Got What It Takes: American Women Artists in Dialogue” (2013), is a critical yet intimate look at the lives and work of nine noted American women artists who have been personally important to Sirlin, based on conversations with each one.
Credit: ArtsATL
Credit: ArtsATL
MEET OUR PARTNER
ArtsATL (artsatl.org) is a nonprofit organization that plays a critical role in educating and informing audiences about metro Atlanta’s arts and culture. ArtsATL, founded in 2009, helps build a sustainable arts community contributing to the economic and cultural health of the city.
If you have any questions about this partnership or others, please contact Senior Manager of Partnerships Nicole Williams at nicole.williams@ajc.com.
About the Author
