The widespread understanding of Georgia O'Keeffe's oeuvre is incomplete. The great abstractionist of modernism is, rightly, galvanized as a painter of abstract floral compositions. Close-up compositions of plants, rendered in hard-edged oil paint or watercolor, are works of art associated with the artist's name. They are amazing, but like the songs themselves, they don't fully reflect the artist. Beyond her floral paintings, O'Keeffe has a prolific and impressive body of landscape and cityscape work—titled “Georgia O'Keeffe: My New Yorks” now at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta.
The exhibition functions as a kind of retrospective—that is, the artworks are chronologically spanned over a five-year period of O'Keeffe's life, beginning in 1924 when O'Keeffe and her husband, Alfred Stieglitz, moved into the Shelton Hotel, then a luxury residence. the most in the world. The exhibition begins with the nature paintings that O'Keeffe was making shortly before this move to the higher ground, as it were Leaf Pattern (1923)—a close-up of leaves showing O'Keeffe's hallmarks: sensual, flowing lines, overlapping shapes and limited use of color.
In the next room it hangs Shelton with Sunspots, NY (1926)—a street-level view of the mansion where O'Keeffe lived. The building is painted in broad daylight in silhouette, a soft approaching gray as the sun peeks through and swallows half of it with its blinding rays. The exhibition concludes with artworks that follow O'Keeffe's move to Santa Fe, as NM Cow Skull with Calico Roses (1931)—a still life of unknown objects rendered with O'Keeffe's trademark sensitivity and delicacy. Providing a transition in and out of New York bookends the show, it neatly frames this brief but unusual chapter in O'Keeffe's life and work not as an aberration but as an integral part of the line.
Despite O'Keeffe's frequent use of still life, abstraction is central to his practice, as seen in New York – Night (Madison Avenue) (1926). This almost pure white painting is a simple combination of crossed lines and cloudy shadows. Completely devoid of visual image features, the title of this painting points to its inspiration as a view of an arterial avenue in New York, as seen from above, its details obscured by height and lack of light. While drawing on the physical world, O'Keeffe was constantly analyzing ways of dividing the divide.
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Scrutiny does not lead to greater meaning and understanding but to its degradation. Abstraction is not a deliberate step leading to non-explanation but an event of careful exploration. This situation is a technique that should be applied to O'Keeffe himself, as shown by the first artwork encountered in the exhibition: New York Street and the Moon (1925). One of the city's many locations in the High show, it started in a group show organized by Alfred Stieglitz and his team, although it was almost pulled out. When O'Keeffe was to be installed, Stieglitz openly presented one of his floral paintings, believing that he should “leave city paintings to men.” In an admirable moment of defiance, O'Keeffe refused to submit to Stieglitz's ideas and chose to show New York Street and the Moon.
O'Keeffe's disdain for Stieglitz and the High Museum exhibition reveals a widespread (mis)understanding of the artist's oeuvre, proving the futility of trying to strictly define any one subject. While this disconnect could lead to any number of possible versions, this show points the way forward. Focusing on a seemingly flawed chapter in O'Keeffe's life, this exhibition presents works of art that are related to but distinctly different from his most famous works. As this exhibition shows, it is within these deviations and hybrids that often the most fruitful work can be found, as long as stereotypes are discarded.
“Georgia O'Keeffe: My New Yorks” is on view at the High Museum of Art until February 16, 2025.
