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Art in the SouthFemale Artists

Georgia O’Keeffe photography exhibition begins national tour in Houston

By Chadd ScottPosted on October 6, 20210 Comments
Georgia O’Keeffe, Jimsonweed (Datura stramonium), 1964–68, black-and-white Polaroid, Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe. © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
Georgia O’Keeffe, Jimsonweed (Datura stramonium), 1964–68, black-and-white Polaroid, Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe. © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum

Georgia O’Keeffe is a groundbreaking figure of American modernism, widely recognized for her paintings of New York skyscrapers, radical depictions of flowers, and stark landscapes of the American southwest. Less known is that she quietly honed a photography practice just as distinct as, yet complementary to, her paintings and drawings. This October, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, presents the first exhibition devoted to O’Keeffe’s photographic practice with the debut of “Georgia O’Keeffe, Photographer.”

Organized in partnership with the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, the exhibition reveals the wider scope of the artist’s career through some 90 photographs from a previously unstudied archive—a discovery led by MFAH associate curator of photography Lisa Volpe. Photographs in the exhibition will be complemented by 17 paintings and drawings of landscapes, flowers, and still lifes from public and private collections across the country. “Georgia O’Keeffe, Photographer” will be on view in the Upper Brown Pavilion of the MFAH Caroline Wiess Law Building from Sunday, October 17, 2021 through Sunday, January 23, 2022 before travelling to the Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts; the Denver Art Museum; and the Cincinnati Art Museum.

“Georgia O’Keeffe has long been the subject of exhibitions, portraiture, and volumes of scholarship. She captivated the art world with her works on paper and canvas, yet her photography has never been studied or known despite being essential to her practice,” Gary Tinterow, Director, the Margaret Alek Williams Chair, MFAH, said. “We are pleased to present this revelatory exhibition and expand appreciation of one of the most innovative and expressive artists our culture has produced.”

While Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986) forged a career as one of the most significant painters of the 20th-century, she also had a lifelong connection to photography. Captured on film throughout her life –in early family photos, travel snapshots, and portraits by a cavalcade of photographic artists including her husband, Alfred Stieglitz (1864–1946) –O’Keeffe was no stranger to the medium. She expressed her unique perspective through all aspects of her life, and by the time she began her photographic practice in the mid-1950s, her singular identity and artistry were well developed.

“Georgia O’Keeffe, Photographer” is the culmination of three years of research led by Volpe, who analyzed hundreds of works in different collections and identified more than 400 photographic images by O’Keeffe. Volpe attributed, dated, and catalogued the photographs by examining small details in the images and analyzing the artist’s distinct style.

“In her 1976 book, O’Keeffe mentions her use of photography. Yet her mastery of painting stymied any research into this area for decades. It was a part of her artistic practice waiting to be examined,” Volpe said. “This exhibition reveals the ways in which she used photography as part of her unique and encompassing artistic vision.  She claimed the medium for herself and her own artistic use—a radical act late in her career that begs for continued scholarship.” 

The exhibition is organized around key tenets of O’Keeffe’s photographic approach—reframing, the rendering of light, and seasonal change.

Reframing views through the lens of her camera, Georgia O’Keeffe saw her environment as an array of possible shapes and forms. Moving from right to left, angling the camera from high to low, or turning it vertically and horizontally, she composed and recomposed her photographs to find harmonious compositions. Prints from O’Keeffe’s serial captures of the Natural Stone Arch near Lehoʻula Beach, ʻAleamai, Hawaii are a highlight, demonstrating the artist’s intuitive search for the ideal relationship of expressive forms. On paper, canvas, or in a photograph, dappled light and dark shadows are not merely fleeting effects for O’Keeffe. They provide weighty and essential forms. Sensitive to this formal potential, the artist often photographed the same view throughout the day to create varying compositions. A striking example is O’Keeffe’s 1964 Forbidding Canyon, a series of five Polaroids that capture changing light between two rock faces.

Photographs of her beloved Chow Chows also express such possibilities, contrasting dark dog fur against the sun-washed landscape to find the tension between depth, flatness, realism, and abstraction. 

O’Keeffe also explored seasonal changes by photographing her environment of evolving foliage and light year-round. Her photographs of the Chama River and a kiva ladder in her New Mexico home capture changes in vegetation, precipitation, and sunlight. Similarly, O’Keeffe regularly photographed the jimsonweed around her home, watching as the trumpet-like flowers obeyed both the cycle of the seasons and a shorter daily cycle, opening in the afternoon and closing with sunrise, from late summer until first frost. O’Keeffe’s jimsonweed prints signal the artist’s ongoing fascination with the transformations of nature.

Georgia O'Keeffe

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Florida Highwaymen Art

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seegreatart
Enjoyed visiting @nimanfineart in #SantaFe, home g Enjoyed visiting @nimanfineart in #SantaFe, home gallery for the legendary #dannamingha also presenting the work of his sons Arlo and Michael. The family owns and operates the business with AMAZING examples of work from all three on hand. 
The paintings here are by Dan, an @instituteofamericanindianarts graduate and one of the most important contemporary Native American artists for going on 40 years.
I was honored to meet the man himself and spend time chatting about his life and work.
Find the gallery just off the Plaza in @cityofsantafe right next door to a gallery dedicated to his friend and fellow legend, Allan Houser.
#santafenm #santafeart #santafeartist #nativeamericanart
This original Florida Highwaymen painting by Alfre This original Florida Highwaymen painting by Alfred Hair is different in a variety of ways. They didn’t often paint in a portrait format and this Everglades scene is less common than poinciana or beach imagery.
I dig it, how about you? 
18x24, recently cleaned and for sale by my friends at Highwaymen Art Specialists on line or in Vero Beach. 
The unquestioned leaders in buying, selling or sharing information about the #floridahighwaymen.
#Florida #everglades #floridahistory #floridaart #floridaartist #floridalife
Artworks from the fabulous @nanibah (Dine) on view Artworks from the fabulous @nanibah (Dine) on view at @sitesantafe along with Jeffrey Gibson, a powerful pairing of contemporary art with both artists happening to be Native American.
It’s hard to pick up from the photos, but these paintings are MASSIVE - 10 feet tall!
#nanichacon #femaleartist #nativeamerican #painting #navajo #santafe #womanartist #indigenousart #indigenouswomen #coyote #badger #spiderwoman
I’ve shared lion and elephant pics in my last 2 I’ve shared lion and elephant pics in my last 2 posts on #safari with @desertdelta in #botswana #africa.
Today, the best of the rest starting with this MASSIVE  #crocodile catching sun along the banks of the #choberiver in #chobenationalpark.
#capebuffalo 
#warthog 
#giraffe 
Baby #baboon 
#zebra 
#impala 
Most seen during stay at #chobegamelodge.
Good night from @desertdelta Savute Safari Lodge i Good night from @desertdelta Savute Safari Lodge in #botswana.
#sunset with the #elephants.
#elephant #sunsetphotography #nofilter #africa #safari #travel #travelling #travelgram #traveler
When I say #Botswana, you think… #elephant. Yest When I say #Botswana, you think… #elephant. Yesterday was lions, today I’m up close with #elephants on my #africansafari.
Botswana is home to the world’s largest concentration of elephants, numbering roughly 140,000 around the country. In these photos, taken with just an older iPhone, you can see how close guests at @desertdelta @chobegamelodge come to these beautiful, gentle animals… close enough to hear them chew their food.
These herds (which go into water at Chobe River, amazing site) in include numerous youngsters showing the health of their population.
#wildlife #wildlifeonearth #wildlifephotography #africa #conservation #chobegamelodge #chobenationalpark #choberiver
Who ordered the LIONS! My morning #safari drive wi Who ordered the LIONS! My morning #safari drive with @desertdelta #chobegamelodge inside #chobenationalpark #botswana was AMAZING with lion sightings. 
Many of these lions were fewer than 20 feet from the vehicle. All of these pictures taken on an older iPhone. My YouTube channel (@seegreatart) has a full video showing how close we were.
All the safari guides at Chobe Game Lodge are women - the Chobe Angels - from around Botswana who undergo extensive professional training before taking out guests.
36 hours here and I’ve also seen elephants, hippos, impala, water buck, monitor lizard, giraffe, cape buffalo, crocodiles, CRAZY amount of birds and a … HONEY BADGER crossing road first thing out frim camp this AM.
#lion #wildlife #wildlifephotography #africa #africansafari #travel #travelblogger #travelgram
What do you think of this skateboard deck art on v What do you think of this skateboard deck art on view in exhibition at @indianpueblo? I think it’s AWESOME!
Love the color, storytelling, contemporanity and symbolism.
#skateboard #skateboardart #albuquerque #newmexico #contemporaryart #contemporarypainting #nativeamerican #nativeamericanart
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