During our second lecture of the term, we looked at Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz. We looked at their life and how their work changed over time:
Biography:
Georgia O'Keeffe:
Georgia O’Keeffe
was an artist that was born on November 15th, 1887 on a wheat farm in
Wisconsin. Even though her mother always encouraged them to become
well-educated as she was a doctor, O’Keeffe was always very curious in becoming
an artist. Her grandmother and two of her sisters also painted; therefore, her
mother influenced her to start lessons with an artist. O’Keeffe continued being
passionate about art and started studying at the Art Institute of Chicago. She
appeared to be one the top students in the class as she stood out from the
rest. O’Keeffe became more interested in galleries as she wanted to expand her
artistic knowledge. She was particularly interested in a gallery found by
Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Steichen. In 1908, O’Keeffe had to return back to
Virginia as her mother was sick and her father had gone bankrupt. She had to
work as a commercial artist as she could not afford to continue her studies. In
1912, O’Keeffe took an art class at the summer school of the University of
Virginia where she experimented more with her techniques as she explored visual
expression through a more abstract composition.
O’Keeffe
once mailed some of her drawings to one of her classmates. The classmate showed
her work to Stieglitz and he became interested in exhibiting her work in his gallery.
In 1916, O’Keeffe had her first gallery which was exhibited 10 of her drawings
in his gallery. In 1918, O’Keeffe wanted to move to New York, where Stieglitz helped
her find a place to live and work and provided her with financial support for
her art. They both realised that they had a connection; therefore, Stieglitz
and his wife divorced, and he married O’Keeffe in 1924. He married her when he
was 52 years old and she was 28.
In the summer
of 1929, O’Keeffe visited northern New Mexico where she discovered a new approach
for her art. She was extremely inspired by the landscape, architecture and
local Navajo culture. As she was still with Stieglitz, she had to split her
time between New York and New Mexico. After Stieglitz death, O’Keeffe moved to New
Mexico and spent her time drawing, traveling and finding new inspirations.
O’Keeffe
suffered from macular degeneration which caused her eye sight to fail. However,
this did not stop her from creating as she painted her last oil painting in
1972. She also wrote a book at the age of 90 with some assistance. O’Keeffe
died on the 6th of March, 1986. She was known as the ‘Mother of American
Modernism’.
Alfred
Stieglitz:
Stieglitz
was born on January 1st 1864 in Hoboken, New Jersey. In 1971, his
father moved them from Hoboken to Manhattan. In 1882, Stieglitz attended Berlin’s
Technische Hochschule for engineering. However, he quickly realised that this
was not the path for his as it did not entice him. Instead, he spent a lot of
time studying with Hermann Vogel, a photo chemist. He devoted himself to photography
as it was his passion. He became a leader of photography’s fine art movement in
the United States as he believed that photography should be considered a fine
art as it required skill and talent.
Stieglitz
refused to sell his artwork. His father purchased a small business for him in
order to pursue this as a career. However, they rarely made profit. In 1892,
Stieglitz purchased his first hand held camera where he used to take some known
pictures like the ‘winter’ ‘terminal’. On November 19th, 1893, he
married Emmeline Obermeyer. He quickly regretted his marriage as they did not
have any artistic and cultural interests. Therefore, they got divorced.
In 1902,
Stieglitz announced the existence of a new organisation called photo- secession.
This was an organisation that was dedicated to promoting photography and how it
should be considered an art form. Member of this organisation were selected by
Stieglitz. In 1917, he met Georgia O’Keeffe.
He created a serial portrait of O’Keeffe that includes more than 300 pictures.
He also continued to support and exhibit modern artists in his gallery 291.
After he closed 291, he opened two more galleries called the intimate gallery and
‘an American palace’. In early 1938, Stieglitz suffered from a serious heart
attack, which made him very weak. In 1946, he suffered from a stroke and went
into a coma. He died in the hospital room alongside O’Keeffe.
These include some of the works Georgia O'Keeffe created:
Many people interpreted this painting as a metaphor for female genitalia. However, O'Keeffe's response quickly shut down these interpretations by saying "Well—I made you take time to look at what I saw and when you took time to really notice my flower you hung all your own associations with flowers on my flower and you write about my flower as if I think and see what you think and see of the flower—and I don't." (O'Keeffe, 1939). She tried to add a lot of detail to her paintings in order to avoid such interpretations by viewers. This showed how much effort a female artist had to undergo in order to avoid such assumptions. Her flower drawings were very known amongst people and they really stood out. It shows how perfectly asymmetrical everything is, however, it looks very harmonic and calming. It shows the blossoming of flowers and emphasizes on the detail and various shades created within the painting. The monochromatic painting shows various shades of the flower, creating a very peaceful contrast. O'Keeffe focuses on the dark shades to create dimension and contrast. She makes the edges of each painting soft to create a soothing feeling which feels as though it is magical.
She enlarges the flower and looks into the detail of it and the colour scheme created. O'Keeffe does not add any elements in the background as a means of focusing only on the flower and the beauty of it. The black iris is symbolic of the tree of life and it is a flower repeated in many of her paintings.
This particular painting never fails to amaze me. Every time I look at it, I discover more beautiful things about this painting and it stands out a lot. She managed to make the leaves look soft which creates a very tranquil image and it is soothing to the eye.
There are some shades of purple included in this design which I would like to explore in my own purple design. These shades of purple are very soothing and calming to the eye which is why I would like to explore various such pastel and cool tone shades.
In 1930, O'Keeffe witnessed a drought which resulted to many skulls scattered around in the roads. As a result, she started painting these skulls. She was fascinated by the bones and she even sent some back to New York. Even though a skull is depicted in the image, the colours surrounding the skull make it less dark and dull. The red passionate colour might represent the blood of the dead animals and people of the drought and the blue might represent the sadness of an event like this occurring. This was my interpretation of the painting. However, it might also represent the American flag as it features the drought happening in America. It also has folds which might also hint that this is a flag.
The central black stripe against the horizontal horns insinuates the religious wooden crosses of the New Mexico desert. The cool blue surroundings contrast with the white skull.
What fascinated me in this painting was the accurate and detailed drawing of the skull. She uses a lot of shading to create dimension and adds various small bumps a skull may have. This shows how detailed her drawings are and how close attention she pays to the details within all the shapes. Additionally, this shows how inspired O'Keeffe was from her surroundings. She wanted to paint things to show their natural beauty. She took a dark concept of a skull and managed to make it not look disturbing or dark as she shows the beauty of it.
We notice a shift in style of painting she creates. She transitioned to a landscape drawing and added many elements in this painting, which was unlikely of her. She usually focuses on a few elements, however, there are a lot of things to see here. Additionally, she usually likes to paint close ups to focus on detail and convey the deep beauty of things, however, in this painting she is far away from the landscape and it does not have a lot of detail. It is evident that New Mexico affected, challenged and pushed her to create more unique things with different techniques. She added various warm and cool tone colours which make the scenery look very calm and peaceful. This might suggest how her life was in Mexico, peaceful and calm.
She definitely liked living in New Mexico and it was a source of inspiration to countless of her paintings. After her death, her ashes were scattered on top of that mountain called Pedernal. This shows how much this mountain inspired her and the deep bond and connection she formed with this surrounding.
These include some works by Alfred Stieglitz:
Paula was one of Stieglitz lovers before he met O'Keeffe. This is one of my favourite photographs of his work as it creates a sense of mystery and calmness. The way the sun rays are shown in the picture makes it appear very calm as it shows that it is sunny outside. The way the light contrasts the rest of the dark room creates a very strong contrast. The dark room makes her appear as though she is floating as her legs are not visible. Additionally, the sense of mystery is evoked as the viewer questions what she is writing. Who is she writing to and what is she saying?
Fifth avenue is a busy street in New York which was in a snowstorm. Stieglitz waited in the snow for three hours to capture the perfect moment. I find the trails very magical as they are leading up to the focal point which is the dark horse and the carriage. They act as a guide for the eye to follow in order to concentrate on the main piece of this composition. In the background, the deeper it gets, the more faded the buildings are which show how much it was snowing. The background barely has any detail as it is covered by snow, making it look like it is foggy. The image created is very magical and unique as it pictures movement through the heavy snow. The blurry images create a more impressionist atmosphere. I like the simple and monochromatic image displayed. The dominant colour is white with a few black figures which act as a focal point. The main focal point which is the carriage is located exactly in the middle of this image to draw the attention of the viewer. I am really impressed by how Stieglitz captured this image as it is very powerful and unique.
This was a picture taken in an excursion to Europe with his ex wife and their daughter. He was very interested in the cubism created and how everything looked so coherent together. He wanted to capture people in action and showcase their every day life through pictures. Stieglitz saw shapes related to each other and noticed an imperfect symmetry that he wanted to capture. He saw a round straw hat. a rectangular leaning staircase, railings with circular chains, round shapes of iron machinery, and a mast making a triangular shape. These shapes looked coherent and he wanted to capture the feeling and emotion behind this picture. The shapes interacted with each other to create geometry. Though this picture, he could showcase the conditions people live in and how crowded it is to complete basic everyday tasks.
I am particularly interested in this picture as there is a lot going on. Everywhere you look, you notice people doing a different task or activity. Your eye wonders across the image to spot out different people and how busy they were. I really like how he captures a lot of detail into this picture and successfully manages to convey the sense of urgency and chaos happening in this picture.
In conclusion, I really liked completing this task as it gave me an insight on these two known artists work. I could look into their biography and how their life affected their work. Just like O'Keeffe was inspired by her surroundings, I will look into my surroundings and see if I can get inspired by anything around me. I will use this technique to be able to visualise everything and develop my work from my surroundings. Additionally, I want to look into more shapes and visualise how they can interact with each other to form coherent products. Stieglitz saw shapes in his images that linked everything together.
References:
You talk in detail about O'Keefe's reaction to people deliberately mis-interpreting her work. I found this newspaper article about Frida Kahlo from 1933 which says all you need to know about the nature of patriarchy in the art world and in journalism at the following link: https://www.openculture.com/2015/03/1933-article-on-frida-kahlo-wife-of-the-master-mural-painter-gleefully-dabbles-in-works-of-art.html
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you focused on the work of Stieglitz - I think that got lost in the discussion during the lesson as we focused on O'Keefe - his photography was ground breaking, particularly his shots of cities and urban environments.