Alfred Stieglitz, (1864–1946)
Detail; Georgia O'Keeffe, c. 1919
Platinum palladium print.
24.1 x 19.4 cm
Private collection
Alfred Stieglitz, (1864–1946)
Georgia O'Keeffe, c. 1919
Platinum palladium print.
24.1 x 19.4 cm
Private collection
The romance between Alfred Stieglitz and Georgia O’Keeffe took on mythical dimensions. Stieglitz took revealing, nude portraits of O’Keeffe and put them on display at his gallery. The two became lovers, then, in 1924, man and wife. More on Alfred Stieglitz and Georgia O’Keeffe
The series went well past the hundred pictures Stieglitz mentioned, and became one of the signature events in the progress of American art photography. The photographs were shown in galleries and museums and a selection of them were published in a book issued by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. More on Alfred Stieglitz and Georgia O’Keeffe
Alfred Stieglitz, (1864–1946)
Georgia O'Keeffe, c. 1919
Sepia photo
14 x 18
Private collection
Georgia Totto O'Keeffe (November 15, 1887 – March 6, 1986) was an American artist. She was best known for her paintings of enlarged flowers, New York skyscrapers, and New Mexico landscapes. O'Keeffe has been recognized as the "Mother of American modernism"
Born in 1887 near Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, O’Keeffe received art training at the Art Institute of Chicago school (1905), the Art Students League of New York (1907–8), the University of Virginia (1912), and Columbia University’s Teachers College, New York (1914–16). She became an art teacher from 1911 to 1918. During this period, she produced a remarkable series of charcoal drawings that led her art—and her career—in a new direction. These daring works of 1915–16 orchestrated line, shape, and tone into abstract compositions. It was through these drawings that O’Keeffe came to the attention of the prominent photographer and New York gallery owner Alfred Stieglitz in January 1916. After supposedly exclaiming, “At last, a woman on paper!” he exhibited her drawings at the 291 gallery, where the works of many avant-garde European and American artists and photographers were introduced to the American public.
Alfred Stieglitz
Georgia O'Keeffe, c. 1918
Gelatin silver print
22.9 × 15.3 cm (9 × 6 in.)
The National Gallery of Art
“There were nudes that might have been of several different people—sitting—standing—even standing upon a radiator against the window—that was difficult—radiators don’t intend you to stand on top of them” (Georgia O’Keeffe in Georgia O’Keeffe: A Portrait by Alfred Stieglitz [1978]). More on this photograph
With Stieglitz's encouragement and promise of financial support, O’Keeffe abandoned teaching and arrived in New York in June 1918, to begin a career as an artist. From then until his death in 1946, Stieglitz vigorously promoted her work in twenty-two solo exhibitions and numerous group installations. The two lived together almost immediately, and were married in 1924.
Georgia O'Keeffe - Torso, c. 1931
Gelatin-silver print
Image height: 91mm, Image width: 240mm
Victoria and Albert Museum
Stieglitz saw his photographs of O'Keeffe as a composite portrait. Seen together, they explore themes of multiplicity, fragmentation, time and change, as well as O'Keeffe's personality, beauty and creativity. We might also read the portraits as a record of Stieglitz and O'Keeffe's love affair and of their remarkable creative synergy. More on this photograph
During the 1920s, O’Keeffe painted a series of architectural pictures that dramatically depict the soaring skyscrapers and aerial views of New York City.
Toward the end of the decade, the strains of dealing with the New York art world, her growing boredom with Lake George, and her deteriorating relationship with Stieglitz took their toll on her physical and emotional health. In response, she made her first extended trip to New Mexico in 1929. It was a visit that had a lasting impact on her life, and an immediate effect on her work. Over the next twenty years, from 1929 to 1949, she made almost annual trips to New Mexico, staying up to six months there, painting in relative solitude, then returning to New York each winter to exhibit the new work at Stieglitz’s gallery. This pattern continued until she moved permanently to New Mexico in 1949.
The last two decades of the artist’s life were relatively unproductive as ill health and blindness hindered her ability to work. When she died in 1986 at age ninety-eight, her ashes were scattered over the New Mexico landscape she had loved for more than half a century. More on Georgia O'Keeffe
Georgia O'Keeffe
Seated Nude XI, c. 1917
Watercolor, Original Vintage Book Color Plate, Ready To Frame
7 1/2 x 10 1/2 inches
Private collection
Alfred Stieglitz (January 1, 1864 – July 13, 1946) was instrumental in establishing photography as a recognized fine art form. Some of Steiglitz's best-known photographs are of the painter Georgia O'Keeffe (who would eventually become his wife), and in line with his belief that great photography “becomes more real than reality,” these close-up portraits convey as much about form as they do about her personality and their relationship. Stieglitz was feverishly devoted to his work and mission and produced thousands of editions in his lifetime, covering numerous themes that captured a period of rapid transition in American society. In 1905, he opened 291 Gallery in New York City to promote pioneering photographers and avant-garde European artists. Stieglitz achieved his goal to have photography shown alongside painting and, due to his efforts, is known as an important proponent of early modernism and not only as a promoter of photography. More on Alfred Stieglitz
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