Georgia O’Keeffe: Art, Image, Style
By Susan Flynn
Independent Streak
Georgia O’Keeffe’s independent streak started early. Her high school yearbook described her this way: “A girl who would be different in habit, style and dress. A girl who doesn’t give a cent for men and boys still less.”
A class photo seems to further this reputation as a woman determined to do things her way. Unlike her peers with a penchant for puffiness, O’Keeffe poses in a dress with fitted sleeves and cuffs. She wears her hair pulled straight back into a long ponytail. She does not style her hair in the trendy high pompadour with a big floppy bow.
A World of her Own Design
With exacting detail and fierce intensity, Georgia O’Keeffe controlled how the world would see her. She orchestrated her life from the clothes she wore to the way she addressed a letter to the objects she placed on her mantle and finally, to the compositions of her paintings.
—AUSTEN BARRON BAILLY, PEM’S GEORGE PUTNAM CURATOR OF AMERICAN ART
“For more than 70 years, Georgia O’Keeffe shaped her public persona. She defied labels. She lived life on her terms so that she could make the art she felt she was called to make.”
Never before Seen
Georgia O’Keeffe: Art, Image, Style, which opens December 16,2017 at Peabody Essex Museum(PEM)Salem, MA, offers a radically new way to consider an artist we think we know from her iconic paintings of flowers and Southwestern landscapes. Through 125 works, the exhibition expands our understanding of O’Keeffe by presenting her wardrobe,for the first time, alongside photographs and paintings.
Sections divide the exhibition by the time of her life. From her early years, when O’Keeffe crafted a signature simple style of dress. Then to her years in New York, in the 1920s and 1930s, when a black-and-white palette dominated much of her art and dress. Finally to her later years in New Mexico, where her art and clothing changed in response to the surrounding colors of the Southwestern landscape.She continued styling right up until her death in 1986.
A New Way to look at O’keeffe
“We are able to explore Georgia O’Keeffe and her art though the lens of her self-fashioning and her self-presentation,” said Bailly, the exhibition coordinating curator. “We can recognize that her clothes and the way she dressed were their own authentic form of artistic expression.”
Her whole life was a work of Art.
Before working on the exhibition, Bailly said she had no idea that O’Keeffe made many of her own clothes. In fact, the renowned modernist artist was a gifted seamstress who favored simple lines, minimal ornamentation and organic forms.
“When you see how exquisitely she crafted linen tunics or silk blouses, you are going to be blown away,” Bailly said. “There is such understated simplicity and elegance to her designs. There is the beauty of the fabrics with the tiny little feminine details. You start to see similarities between the aesthetics of her clothes and her paintings. Without opening up her closet, you never would sense that her whole life was a work of art.”
Decades Ahead of Everyone
Georgia O’Keeffe was decades ahead of everyone. Today, social media makes it easy to curate one’s own public image. Scroll through your Instagram feed. You’re likely to encounter friends skilled at projecting their self-identified brand. O’Keeffee’s presented a unified aesthetic vision in every aspect of her life.
“I think people are really captivated by the fact that she maintained such a strikingly coherent style throughout her long life, “said Bailly. “Her ability to achieve creative and aesthetic excellence according to her vision in every aspect of her life far eclipsed her peers. Her remarkable personal style continues to inspire.”
https://www.pem.org/https://annbaldwinmayartquilts.com/2018/07/a-world-of-fiber-art/