Georgia O’keeffe & Alfred Stieglitz

My fortune was favorable. On this visit to the High they had an exhibit featuring two artists I knew a little bit about already. Artists that are quite well known by many people, even people who know very little about art. It was a fascinating, educational, once in a lifetime experience for me. A noteworthy experience Im happy to have the ability to recall in this fashion. A day prior to going on this trip with my sisters family, I had no idea that I was going to have such a monumental day. I even debated on if I wanted to accept the invitation or just stay at home. I’m glad I went. I deeply appreciate the opportunity, and my chance to see world-class artwork.

Alfred Stieglitz https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alfred-Stieglitz is one of the great photographers in the history of photography. A name that will be remembered as long as this society remembers things like art history. I honestly didn’t know that much about him prior to my chance encounter with his work here at the High. I only knew I’d heard of him prior to this exposure of mine. I had no idea, but learned at this exhibition that he was married to Georgia O’keefe. That being the thread that tied together theses two monumental artists being mixed together in one exhibition.

I’m not going to spend much time on biography. I am posting some links for quick reference. There, however, are volumes written on both these artists and their lives that can be easily found if one is so inclined. I did read a good bit of the Britannica posting on Stieglitz, and found it fascinating, and I intend, but probably will never get around to learning more about the man. Woe is me. There are so many things I find fascinating and such a finite amount of time to appreciate it all.

One piece of history I will mention. It was a central theme of this exhibit that Stieglitz and O’keefe lived together in New York city for some period. Im not trying to give dates or a straight-up history lesson here. I’m simply adding my own commentary based on my remembrance of this personal experience.

Georgia O’keefe https://www.britannica.com/biography/Georgia-OKeeffe is a well known and influential painter. I knew some things about her prior to this experience. Admittedly my knowledge was very limited. I knew O’keefe as the artist that painted flowers many people likened to female genitalia. And, well, sex sells. As the cliche says. As such her name and work is probably more well known among the artistically illiterate than most. Personally I knew a little more about her and her work than that base generalization. I’m pretty sure I had seen some of her works as a young person while traveling in the southwest United States. A great deal of her paintings were inspired by her time in the American southwest. Not only did she like to paint flowers, she also liked to paint cow skulls, and other kinds of bones I believe. I didn’t know that she was also well known for her paintings of New York city, which I learned at this exhibition.

Another interesting thing I learned at this exhibition is, at the time, O’keefe was considered by some to be a marginal artist at best, and that she only got famous because she was married to Stieglitz. It’s interesting to me now that she is probably more well known than Stieglitz at this point. Again, these are just my thoughts and understandings.

I have little doubt that things like becoming famous and/or rich due entirely to who you know were discussed at the time. Such things are still discussed today. There is a lot of merit to the idea that one can become famous only because one is associated with the “right” people. It does’t mean that one does not deserve to be famous. Although I think many people who never deserved to be famous are famous simply because of who they know. I think that such a social dynamic is actually one of humanities greatest failings. So many worthy minds die unknown and unappreciated while some many complete idiots are elevated to godlike status in this world. It’s a damn shame.