Art Lecture series 2: Alfred Stieglitz and Georgia O'Keefe

 On 4/2/21we had a Lecture with Mrs Zoe about Alfred Stieglitz and Georgia O'Keefe.

Georgia O'Keefe

Alfred Stieglitz

Alfred and Georgia met in 1916 when Alfred was 52 and was already famous. At the time he photographed and owned an avant-grade gallery. Stieglitz was born in 1864 and studied engineering in Germany and later on came back to New York in 1880. He had an interest in photography and was part of the camera club in New York. He found the policies of the club restrictive in 1902. Alfred considered photography to be more aesthetic and edited the associations publication camera work from 1903 to 1917. The steerage was that he wanted to capture the element and vision while embracing realism which he loved. For example he wanted to take shots of real life phenomenons instead of trying to express something fake and non existent. He became passionate with straight photography and change how things were viewed and instead portray the grittiness of life. What fascinated him was the idea of capturing the modern and the real. This revelation came as a revolution for photography as it began being viewed as a form of art. A masterpiece of his was Venice which gave hints of life and the presence of people without them being there.

Laundry, Venice 1864

They met in 1916 when Georgia was 28 years old and was a schoolteacher at the time. They developed a passionate affair and the couple got married in 1924. They used to write letters to each other constantly and overall exchanged about 25,000 letters, about 2-3 letters a day. The letters were often pages long and contained the love and life they shared. Georgia O'Keefe was the first female painter to achieve worldwide acclaim form critics. Both Georgia O'Keefe and Alfred Stieglitz were revolutionary in society in their own ways as Alfred revolutionised photography into a form of art and capturing the real and Georgia O'Keefe revolutionised the way women were viewed and the position they held in society. Georgia became head of an art department. Her art was based on figuration and abstraction. When Georgia was about to return to Texas Alfred wanted to photograph her and often stated that he thought of her all the time. Alfred was married at the time and when his wife was away he photographed her passionately and embraced nudity in pictures.

Georgia O'Keefe nude 1

Georgia O'Keefe nude 2

 He got tired of his wife and was falling in love with Georgia. The wife found out about their affair and filed for divorce which took 6 years to finalise. Although the divorce took so long Georgia and Alfred lived together. Georgia O'Keefe began drawing flowers and was drawn to oil painting and in 1920 she drew 'Flower of Life II' which became one of her most famous pieces.

Flower of Life II

Many crowds sexualised the flowers she drew but she disagreed with this idea. In my opinion i believe she drew flowers in this way in order to shine light on how often people view things sexually and avoid the analysation of the piece to depict a different meaning. She drew beautifully composed paintings which she adored. The couple was passionately in love until Alfred died in 1946 of cerebral thrombosis. 

Stiegllitz and O'Keefe

After his death she returned to New York to settle in their estate and then eventually permanently settled in New Mexico. She often had nervous breakdowns as their marriage started to fall apart and Alfred did not treat her well even though he loved her. O'Keefe found major inspiration in her house in New Mexico in which she discovered herself again with the aid of her art. Their lives took different paths even though they truly loved each other dearly and this caused them great pain. She stayed in the ranch, greatly captivated by the sunlight, sky and desert landscape. While maintaining a classy aesthetic she made great money. Many state that she became famous because of her husband but honestly did pretty well with her paintings even if it was very difficult for women at the time to get their artworks into galleries. What interested Georgia was architectural forms with detail and landscape. Her piece 'Ladder to the Moon' was considered a self portrait and a transition between life and death which is the state in which she felt she was in after her husbands death.

Ladder to the Moon 1958

 Her paintings took a different path as they became more revolved around landscape and less around flowers. The object oval appears into many of her paintings. O'Keefe died in New Mexico in 1986 when she was 98 years old. Her eyesight was gone by the end of her very long life but managed to create many paintings which are considered iconic up to now. In comparison to Alfred she lived 40 more years. She stated that she 'saw what she wanted to paint' after becoming almost blind. This phrase draws questions to many of her paintings as it is questioned whether the things she drew including landscapes, flowers etc. where actually a form of still life or if she drew them using her imagination. When she began getting blind she hired assistants to help her create art. Both Alfred and Georgia saw the real and created what they saw and expressed themselves through their art. Her latest works were vivid memories and motifs from her imagination. Both of the artists were considered modern and interesting artists for their time.