Stieglitz and O'Keefe Research

In class, we heard a talk about Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz. Based on the lecture, I did research on the two artists.

Georgia O'Keeffe was born on November 15, 1887, in Wisconsin, United States. She was an influential painter in modernism and became known for her paintings of flowers and bones. She also has representations of buildings and skyscrapers in New York and unique New Mexico landscapes. (Lynes, s.d)

In the 1900s, Georgia O'Keeffe studied art at the Art Institute of Chicago as well as the Art Students League in New York. But she dropped out of school because her instructions in her artwork limited her a lot because she wanted to paint according to her interpretation. The teachers didn't like her job. O'Keeffe taught for several years while refining her artistic style. (History Daily, 2018)

In 1915, O'Keeffe sent some drawings to a former colleague at Teachers College, who took them to an avant-garde gallery in New York that belonged to Stieglitz. He was impressed with his work and in 1917 he did an individual show of O'Keeffe's work (lynes, s.d.)

According to History Daily (2018), Stieglitz wanted to expose O'Keeffe's work and, when she went to New York, they met. This one was younger than him, Stieglitz was 52 and O'Keeffe was 28. O'Keeffe posed for Stieglitz, who took more than 330 nude photos and were controversial at the time. They became lovers for years and it was only after Stieglitz's divorce that they were able to marry.

The marriage was not a happy one, Stieglitz had lovers and O'Keeffe sought treatment for depression, deciding to go to New Mexico, where he was inspired to create the landscapes. Here, O'Keeffe had two affairs with two women, but she fell in love with the land and culture of the southwest. She ended up deciding to move to the Southwest, where she started painting the field and its flowers, which caused some concern at the time because they were considered to be representations of the female anatomy. (History Daily, 2018)

Until Stieglitz's death, he continued to promote the artist and captivate critics of her art. The sexual connotation of O’Keeffe’s paintings was Stieglitz who created it, giving this interpretation to her work to attract public attention. O'Keeffe denies that connotation, but it was the fame of her work that gave her financial stability. (lynes, s.d.)

O'Keeffe began to limit the inclusion of her works in exhibitions. In the 1920s she changed and started to paint recognizable shapes, which make her known today.

After Stieglitz's death, she managed to manage her work in order to sell it, something she learned from her husband. (lynes, s.d.)

When she was 80, O'Keeffe hired a 27-year-old artist, Juan Hamilton, to help her with her art projects and other tasks. They were close friends and it was rumored that they were lovers. O'Keeffe saw his conduct criticized and Hamilton was considered an opportunist who only wanted her money. But when she died, he donated everything she left him. (History Daily, 2018)

As I said, she started to paint with Oil around 1920, and she started by painting flowers:

Light of the Iris (1924)

Black Iris (1926)

One of the themes that Georgia O'Keeffe liked to do was flowers. She concentrated on making flowers up close, with a lot of detail and also very simple colors. According to many people, her work has a sexual connotation. This image was created, as she said, by Stieglitz to attract people to her art. O'Keeffe had to say that they were not sexual works, but simple works of flowers. «Accordingly, she objected strongly to gendered interpretations of her work as well as to the sexualized public image that Stieglitz had created of her. In an attempt to reshape this public image, she began — after the Anderson Galleries exhibit of 1923 — to promote herself as a serious, hardworking professional. In published interviews and in the photographs of her made by Stieglitz and other photographers, she began to cultivate a public image that was antithetical to the one Stieglitz had presented of her in his 1921 exhibition of her work. » (Lynes, s.d., para. 12)

In my opinion, I had not related the flowers to anything sexual at first, but after people said it was, I started to understand why. However, it is necessary to think about whether the artist intended when she painted or not. If she denies this relationship between pictures and some kind of sexuality, perhaps we should accept her position. It was an idea created by Stieglitz, who could only have financial reasons. There is always doubt about the intention that the artist really had. Apart from that, I think the works are quite well done with a good color technique, and the Black Iris (1926) is a good example of how to paint with only black and white.

My Front Yard, Summer (1941)

This was a completely unexpected change compared to all the flowers and the dream method O'Keeffe was painting on. Her time in New Mexico has changed her vision from her perspective a lot and I inspire her to try to paint what she saw (of course it was Mexico's landscapes) in an innovative way. This new way of painting surprised me a bunch, even that we know that the same techniques were used in this painting, it seems that a lot has changed. Not only she painted something completely different, but also she used a color palette that she hasn't used before in any of the colorful flowers.

Alfred Stieglitz was born in 1864 in Hoboken, New Jersey. His origin was a German-American family, who emigrated to the United States. But he went to study mechanical engineering in Germany. He became interested in photography and his passion was born when he studied with chemist August von Hofman. Stieglitz signed up to study with the photographic chemist Hermann Wilhelm Vogel. From here, he will never leave the photograph (Oden, s.d.)

His view of photography differed from other photographers, as he considered photography to be an art form. According to Oden (s.d.), he fought to make photography a new means of expression. He worked a lot in photography and conducted new experiences in the field. He ended up being recognized internationally for his advances in photographic chemistry and for his photos.

He was editor of Camera Notes, the journal of the Camera Club of New York. As an editor, he encouraged photographers who shared his ideas. But that did not please the members of the Club, as Stieglitz withdrew from Camera Notes. With this removal, he took several photographers to follow him and founded Photo-Secession in 1902. (Szarkowski, s.d.) They opened a gallery to be able to gather and exhibited painters like Cezanne, Picasso, Braque, and Matisse. This gallery and its fame allowed it to expose photography as an art form, but it also introduced modern art to America. But he found a lot of resistance and criticism. (Szarkowski, s.d.)

1917 was the turning point, the year in which Stieglitz met Georgia O’Keeffe, with whom he began a relationship. Photographing Georgia O’Keeffe was his occupation between 1917 and 1925. He took hundreds of photographs of her. (Hostetler. 2004)

At the time of the First World War, Stieglitz began his experiments with palladium paper, instead of the platinum that was no longer sold due to the price. At this point, he changes and starts photographing clouds. He was experimenting and his intention was to show that his photographs were good, not because of the object that was being photographed, but because of the way he worked on them until the final product (Oden, s.d.)

The last decades of his life were managing his gallery (Anderson Galleries, 1921–25; The Intimate Gallery, 1925–29; An American Place, 1929–46). At the end of his life, when his health and energy were decreasing, he photographed from the gallery window. These photographs became famous for the way they showed views of the city (Hostetler. 2004) 

Stieglitz died in 1946.

The first photo of Stieglitz that I got to look at was this one:

City of Ambition (1910)

With this old photo taken by Stieglitz, we can see one of the things he liked to do with his photos. When he took the photos of skyscrapers, he wanted to show the audience how real the photo was, because at the time the photos that were taken at the time by other artists were modified to look more like a painting. This was a big step in his career.

The other photo was:

Sun Rays, Paula, Berlin (1889)

In this photo, we can see one of the artist's lovers called Paula writing in a dark room with the sunshine going through the window. As stated by Art Institute Chicago, it became one of his best-known works, in contrast to the more atmospheric and seemingly timeless images he made at the time. Like it was said before, the artist didn't want to make this artwork look pretty, but instead, look real, and in every photo he took he achieved this. (Art Institute Chicago,s.d.)

The lecture was very interesting and I got to know two very different artists, who curiously related in life. Despite having no relation to the work I am currently doing, it gave me another view on art, both in painting and photography. An interesting aspect is that people argue and think about sexuality linked to Georgia O'Keeffe's paintings and not enjoy painting without complications. We will never know the truth about the paintings, nor who would tell the truth of the two artists. For me, what is important is that when I look at the pictures and paintings, I like them. Then I try to understand, as I did in this post. 

References:

Art Institute Chicago (s.d.) Sun Rays—Paula, Berlin. [online] Available from: https://www.artic.edu/artworks/66284/sun-rays-paula-berlin [accessed on: 05/02/2021]

History Daily (2018) The Strange and Tragic Love Life of Georgia O’Keeffe.[online] Available from: https://historydaily.org/the-strange-and-tragic-love-life-of-georgia-okeeffe  [accessed on: 05/02/2021]

Hostetler, Lisa (2004) Alfred Stieglitz (1864–1946) and American Photography. The Met, 10/2004. [online] Available from: Alfred Stieglitz (1864–1946) and American Photography | Essay | The Metropolitan Museum of Art | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History (metmuseum.org)  [accessed on: 05/02/2021]

Lynes, B. (s.d.) Georgia O'Keeffe American painter.  Britannica.  [online] Available from: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Georgia-OKeeffe [accessed on: 05/02/2021]

Oden, Lori (s.d.) Alfred Stieglitz. International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum.  [online] Available from: Alfred Stieglitz | International Photography Hall of Fame (iphf.org) [accessed on: 05/02/2021]

Szarkowski, J. (s.d.) Alfred Stieglitz American photographer. Britannica. [online] Available from: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alfred-Stieglitz [accessed on: 05/02/2021]