Artisté Florenza and I took in the Georgia O’Keefe exhibit at the Whitney. Fantastic. I love walking into an exhibit wondering if it’s going to be worth my time and end up being blown off my feet. I wanted to take 8-Year Old Daughter but this was an exhibit of O’Keefe’s abstract paintings and I thought they’d be inaccessible to her. I want to be careful how I dole this stuff out. For instance, I’d never take her to a Francis Bacon exhibit. She’d have nightmares for months.
I didn’t find O’Keefe’s abstracts to be all that abstract, which is a good thing. Abstract expressionism is pretty hard core stuff that I sometimes have a problem digesting. Like some forms of jazz, it’s art that’s best appreciated by other artists, not mainstream schmoes like me.
There was a healthy representation of her beautiful floral works.
Her paintings of flowers have been said to have a somewhat feminine bent to them. Do you agree or is that just people being sensational?
Note to Nursemyra: Do you know who Roni Horn is? They allocated *two floors* of space for her current exhibit! I know she’s a pretty big deal and I tried to keep an open mind but I wasn’t very impressed.
Exile on Pain Street 
“Feminine”? Georgia O’Keefe prints should be obligatory in gynaecology clinics the world over. And (hint) all little girls should be given a G O’K calender for christmas right about when they start hitting adolescence…
She is my absolute favorite artist. I even have a daughter named after her. I wish I could see the exhibit.
PG: Yeah, I kind of thought so myself but was too timid to admit it. They’re like Rochart blots for gals.Cat: I don’t mean to rub it in but it was a beautiful exhibit. Wish you and the Yank could have made the trip up. I’d have given you a personal tour.
Definitely “feminine.” No debate necessary, it’s just an intrinsic part of her work.I’m never sure whether I like her or not.
Feminine? I thought they looked like vaginas…
I don’t know why Georgia O’Keefe denied her works resembled vaginas. I do know she regretted the nude photos that Steiglitz exhibited of her and was perhaps trying to distance her art from sexuality…Roni Horn I had heard of but I’m not very familiar with her work. If it’s good the images I see on the internet aren’t doing it justice
Leah: Actually, I’m surprised that the work is so mainstream. I’ve seen big O’Keefe vagina calendars at the local Barnes & Noble!MP: An A+ observation! Where are the male-equivalent painters?Nurse: Is it possible she never SAW her work as resembling vaginas until a third party pointed it out to her?
Georgia O’Keefe painted this work when she was at the Chicago School of Art. She said that she was in one classroom and heard music playing in another room down the hall and it was this that stimulated this series and why she entitled this work as ‘ Music: Pink and Blue II’.
We can interpret them however we wish and will never know what subliminal forces were at play in the artist’s mind but I never saw any vaginal or fallopian in the works until my wife’s Aunt Bibby removed it surreptitiously from our living room wall before our marriage took place there, as she found it too vulgar or something.
Bibby died yesterday which is why I am recalling that incident.
Saw the OKeefe exhibit as well…thought it was great. Also loved the photographs of her… I wasn’t impressed by Roni Horn either…the bird photos creeped me out.
Gosh I wouldn’t have thought so UB. What’s your opinion?
I actually own an O’Keefe and my wife makes me keep it locked up with my porn.
Those weren’t all vaginas? Huh…who knew?~E