A reflection on exhibition of Georgia O’Keeffe by Foundation Beyeler, Basel, 2022 from a fan who has loved her work since many years ago
Image Courtesy by Foundation Beyeler, Basel, Switzerland
It is a challenge to write about Georgia O’Keeffe with only words at disposal. “No colors,” “no shapes,” nothing, but a blank page. She is famous for large-scale, close-up paintings of flowers, the iris, the lilies, and the feeling of innocence and romantism they exude. Gentile strokes of soft colors resonate music and movements. These symbolic paintings mirror emotions produced by sensational energy and spectacular perspectives. Serene impression of nature and flowers has been engrained, both effortlessly and unconsciously for many people, as her signature works of all time.
Going forward into the twenty first century, undoubtfully, her works continue to carry the beating of our modern life - the love of trees, being one with nature, soaking up the sunset, and going free into the desert. In this exhibition, various artworks during her later stage in life show different aspects of her work, almost felt like they were from a different person.
It is still her, but a person looking down to earth from the airplane, a person who was probably living on a higher plain of realm. Demonstrated in artworks in the period of 40s and 50s, up to the 60s, such as Pelvis IV (1944), It was Yellow and Pink II (1959), and Road to the Ranch (1964), it seems there is much more “minimalism,” or “surrealism.” The vigour, the endurance, the sense of wilderness is more intense and denser at the same time; it shows the need to eliminate as much as possible. Towards the end of her career, it appears she is in full control of her story, the expression, and the assertiveness of her style. The definition of self that carries her work to various places and this is the last place where they belong. This probably happened during the time when she reached the last point of exploring subjects and things.
Where will it be the next destination? Tilted “My Last Door,” this artwork opens possibilities with tremendous space to fill. In addition to Lake George, New Mexico, or urban New York, there is a chance that if she had lived longer, she would have gone somewhere else vastly innovative - perhaps “over the next hill” - to constantly renovate herself. Her style encompasses an extraordinarily wide range and the essence of art within her, the ability to nurture and fertilizer creativity to it maximum potential is unravelling.
From this painting that is understood to be her home, a black dark square stands in the middle of a blank canvas and below are light grey rectangles. They “may therefore be read as a door and the rectangles below as flagstones just outside”1. There is nothing left here because the process of “stripping off all she has been taught” has finished. In a way, it does make sense as all through her life there is a strong feeling that she tried hard to stand up on her own, to make a bold statement of taking the time to see beauty “whether people want it or not.” Also, she has been so centered in her own self that “the line of being an artist should stay as clear as possible.” The presence of nature in her work becomes highly essential, unremovable, and all it takes is a simple black dark box to represent earthy sensuality of bad lands, clays, soil, and everything else that is mixed with it. To play with imagination, the rectangles on the bottom of the painting might echo the beating of light, the sunsets, or the rainbow. Home is, consequently, an idea. The journey of exploration continues, no longer in the name of young, soft wildflowers. It is now the combination of both sides, in blending with romantism is a strong part of masculinity, from experiencing and suffering, from constantly renewing oneself, between living and reliving.
On the opposite side of the spectrum finds a large distance between the artist and nature. This source of inspiration could have been the foundation of a relationship gradually cultivated between an artist and space. It is admirable to see structure of line and three-dimensional architecture shown in artworks during her later stage in life since that level of abstraction reached was pioneering among American artists at that time. Even after almost one hundred years of living, of which six decades dedicated to art of painting (at some point including photography), she has left behind a door with options of looking further, moving beyond into a limitless sky. One can see this evolution as a considerably natural step from the original painting style of soft and free movement.2 From the vast rural landscape on earth, she has lifted the view onto the sky, the moon, the horizon has developed into ones of her own - so deeply rooted and invested that they come out in a form of “personal attachment”. As she says, “happiness is momentary, interest is continuous,” her last advice might have been “keep on exploring, everyone!”
1. Georgia O’Keeffe Exhibition, Foundation Beyeler, 2022
2. Georgia O’Keeffe Catalogue, Foundation Beyeler, 2022