 Georgia O'Keeffe: Visions of the Sublime, re-examines the work of one of the world's most iconic artists. From her earliest
works, O'Keeffe was a visionary who intuitively created new definitions of the sublime, enhanced our perceptions of its
visual symbols, and inevitably provided us with new ways to view our surroundings and explore our inner selves. In the early
1930s, O'Keeffe wrote about —that memory or dream thing I do for me comes nearer reality than my objective kind of work.—
This comment connects O'Keeffe to the aesthetic concept of the sublime, with its immediate sensation of awe-inspiring,
infinite space, and evocative color and light directly internalized in our own lives.
Spanning more than five decades, the exhibition features more than 30 paintings, drawings, and one sculpture by O'Keeffe,
together with paintings by important American artists such as Albert Bierstadt, Martin Johnson Heade, and George Inness from
the Hunter Museum of American Art (Chattanooga, Tennessee). Also included are photographs by O'Keeffe's husband, Alfred Stieglitz,
and noted American photographer Todd Webb. The exhibition, which is accompanied by a comprehensive and well-illustrated catalogue
with essays by noted scholars and artists, will be presented at: University of Michigan, Museum of Art, Ann Arbor (July 10, 2004 – September 26, 2004);
Fresno Metropolitan Museum (October 22, 2004 – January 2, 2005); Eiteljorg Museum, Indianapolis (January 15, 2005 – April 3, 2005);
Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga (April 15, 2005 – June 12, 2005); and Boise Art Museum, Idaho (June 30, 2005 – September 12, 2005).
Georgia O'Keeffe: Visions of the Sublime is organized by Joseph S. Czestochowski, and circulated by International Arts, Memphis,
Tennessee. The exhibition was made possible by the assistance of The Georgia O'Keeffe Foundation, Abiquiu, New Mexico;
George Eastman House, Rochester (Alfred Stieglitz Collection); and the Museum of New Mexico, Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe,
New Mexico (Georgia O'Keeffe Collection).
Georgia O'Keeffe (1887–1986) is well known for her elegant studies of enlarged flowers and bleached animal bones in the
southwestern desert. By situating O'Keeffe's work within the 18th-century aesthetic concept of the sublime—which associates
feelings of fear, gloom, and awe with landforms of immense scale and size, such as mountains, oceans, and deserts—the exhibition
shifts the focus of her artistic identity as a 20th-century modernist to include a broader conception of her pioneering creative
influences and her unique place in the American artistic tradition.
Although most of O'Keeffe's works are landscapes, the sublime, for her, was not necessarily associated with a physical
location—New Mexico, Lake George, or elsewhere. Hers was a state of mind in which nature and the sublime transcended
specific times and places. O'Keeffe's paintings were powerful poems distilled from her imagination and her vision of our
surroundings, seductively simple and appealing, yet highly complex explorations of ever-relevant universal sentiments.
O'Keeffe begins her compositions by using design as an organizing principle and moves freely between realism and abstraction.
Images such as Untitled (Desert Abstraction) (Bear Lake) (1931) and From
the River-Light Blue (1964) translate earth, water, and
sky into geometric bands of color and light. Manipulation of scale, use of fragments, precise lines and blurred edges,
bold colors, all combine to create works that serve as powerful reflections of O'Keeffe's private emotional experiences.
In turn, views like Waterfall—No. III—'Ïao Valley (1939) and Canyon Country (1965) provoke profound feelings of reverence and
sublime awe in the viewer.
Vintage black-and-white photographs, from the George Eastman House (Rochester, New York), by Alfred Stieglitz (1864–1946)
whom O'Keeffe married in 1924, include his innovative cloud studies –Equivalents,– which were inspired by O'Keeffe's art.
Stieglitz's seminal images of O'Keeffe herself from the 1920s and 30s complement the exhibition and explore how the two
influenced each other—s work. Rounding out the exhibition are a selection of more informal and candid photographs of
O'Keeffe by Todd Webb (1905–2000) , provided by the Evans Gallery–Todd Webb Trust (Portland, Maine), from the 1950s
and —60s in the places she lived and cherished—Abiquiu, Glen Canyon, and Ghost Ranch.
The exhibition includes works of art loaned by institutions across North America, including: the Amarillo Art Museum; Art
Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Boston Museum of Fine Arts; Butler Institute of American Art; Cleveland Museum of Art; Dallas
Museum of Art; Detroit Institute of Arts, Georgia O'Keeffe Foundation, Abiquiu; Hirshhorn Museum Sculpture Gardens;
Honolulu Academy of Arts; The Menil Collection, Houston; Montclair Art Museum, New Jersey; Museo Tamayo, Mexico City;
Museum of New Mexico, Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe; National Gallery of Art; Panhandle Plains, Canyon, Texas; Phoenix
Art Museum; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas; Stark Museum of Art, Texas;
University Mississippi, Oxford; University New Mexico, Albuquerque; Weisman Museum University Minnesota; Whitney Museum of
American Art and the Curtis Galleries, Minneapolis.
PUBLICATION
The companion publication includes nine groundbreaking essays that align O'Keeffe's work with earlier concepts of the sublime.
Contributors include Charles C. Eldredge, Eugenia Parry, Marjorie Balge-Crozier, Therese Mulligan, Barbara Novak,
Robert Rosenblum, James Turrell, Sharyn R. Udall, and John Wilmerding. Printed in Milan, the 228-page catalogue is
illustrated with 132 color and 70 duotone plates. The catalogue is edited by Joseph S. Czestochowski and co-published by
The Torch Press and International Arts.
Specs: Printed in Milan, 12 1/4 x 10 in., 31.1 x 25.4 cm., 202 plates (132 color and 70 duotone plates), 228 pages,
ISBN 0-9716408-2-3, Book Edition – 1000 copies, 85.00 USD. 100 copies have been issued with the signed photograph
Georgia O'Keeffe Potting Shed II, 1975, by Dan Budnik.
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