In autumn of 1916, Georgia was teaching art at the West Texas State Normal College and living in a small town called Canyon. Stieglitz, if you remember why you liked the charcoals Anita Pollitzer showed you and what they said to you, I would like to know, if you want to tell me“, they started a correspondence that lasted throughout their lives and little they knew that a seed of love was planted in those few words love that would blossom in the years to come. It wasn’t until May 1916 that Georgia found out that Stieglitz was showing her works at his gallery at first she was angry about it, although she allowed the exhibition to continue, but then curiosity prevailed and she was eager to hear what it was that he loved about her drawings. Pollitzer wrote to Georgia about Stieglitz’s reaction: “ it was a long while until his lips opened: finally a woman on paper.” Stieglitz almost instantly showed her drawing at his Midtown Manhattan art studio called “291” the place for the scandalous and avant-garde art decades before Andy Warhol and his avant-garde at his Manhattan studio called “The Factory”. It’s little to say that Stieglitz was captivated with what he saw unable to utter a single word as he gazed at the drawings which seemed so fresh, exciting and new, so unlike all that he had seen before. Satisfied with what she has created, early in 1916, Georgia O’Keeffe sent a letter accompanied with ten of her charcoal drawings to her friend and former classmate Anita Pollitzer who then, without Georgia’s permission, proceeded to share these with the famous photographer Alfred Stieglitz, at the time also known for being the promoter of modern art. She opposed copying directly what was in front of her, and her charcoals are really interesting, with repetitive shapes that seem to have been made spontaneously, without much thinking or planning before hand. She was determined not to use colour until she discovers the true potential of a simple and unassuming medium such as drawing, in her own words: “ I wasn’t going to use any colour until I couldn’t do what I wanted to do with charcoal or black paint.” Georgia thought that art, like music, should be inspired by nature and the real world, but separate from it and abstract in its core. At the academy, she painted in the realist manner which was expected of her, but privately she painted minimalist watercolours and abstract charcoal drawings which were unlike everything she had seen other artists around her painting. Paintings which we today connect with Georgia O’Keeffe’s are full of colour but her early work was very different. Georgia O’Keeffe photographed by Alfred Stieglitz, 1918 This is the first part of a little series I will be making about Georgia O’Keeffe, and I will focus on things which fascinated me the most about her life her love for Stieglitz, her love of flowers and her love of solitude. This way she created abstract paintings and drawings that were inspired by what she had seen in the natural world around her, and her own visions at the same time. She was very patient and able to gaze at something in nature, be it a flower, a cloud, a brook, then meditate over it, soak in its every last detail and then distill the essence of her experience into her artwork. Hardworking and dedicated when it came to her art, O’Keeffe worked continuously every day, never waited for the perfect moment of inspiration, and rarely allowed her negative moods or emotions to rule her day or her life. She decided she wanted to become a painter at the age of twelve, and she not only became an accomplished painter but spent nearly her entire life developing her art, constantly learning, experimenting and changing, striving to paint in a way that was completely her own, and not mimic the art that others were making around her. Georgia O’Keeffe is a woman I deeply admire these days.
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