Great show. A complete history of a prolific artist. She observed early on in her career, that a lot of her work, while teaching, was designed to pleased 'whoever', but she had made nothing to please herself. Then a friend sent a portfolio of her work to art dealer Steiglitz, and her career took off. They worked together (him a photographer and art dealer, her an artist) for 6 years, until he secured a divorce from his first wife, and then they married. He must have been about 25 years older than her.
The exhibition started with her charcoal drawings, then moved on to synasthesia and chromasthesia. She moved from water colours (associated with women and amateur status) to oils (male media and professional), but there was also work in pastel. O'Keeffe referred to Dow's quotation "the essence of composition is to fill the space in a beautiful way". To my mind, a better definition is "to use the space in a meaningful way".
O'Keeffe was adamant that her work was not feminine, as usually described by critics. The exhibition implied that her work was labelled feminine after nude portraits of her by Steiglitz showing voluptuous curves. Critics gave her an imposed identity by describing her landscapes in terms usually reserved for nude art, which she fought against for the rest of her life.
Work shown moved from architecture (farms and New York), landscape of autumnal North East farms and arid desert in south west USA; flowers; fruit; bones and skulls; representations of weather.
Lots of postcards, demonstrating the breadth of her work.
An excellent show.
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