Jerry Rightman lectured at the Pecos Room, Hilton Hotel two consecutive days in Santa Fe.
On Day 1 he toured the life of Georgia O’Keefe, first as a realist painter in 1908 till 1915 when she met Alfred Steglitz. Some of her early impressionism reflected the conventions of photography, which framed subjects like “Black Hollyhock” below.
Jerry Rightman
O’Keefe was influenced by impressionists who practiced synesthesia, the expression of one medium in another medium, such as the sound of bells ringing in the church belfry below.
She cohabited with Steglitz in New York during a period when critics sexualized her work, and he did not discourage that interpretation, as an art exhibitor in New York. They married in 1925. d
She attempted only a few streetscapes, one of which is portrayed in somber blue and black below. Note in Museum annotations, her struggle for acceptance among male artists in New York.
Many of her still life’s had a dream quality that made them memorable, such as
Some of the sharp photographic images appear during her years in Hawaii working under contract from Dole Pineapple.
It was a pleasure to hear Jerry give a clear-eyed commentary on O’Keefe before we visited the Museum on Thursday afternoon, so we were not distracted by critical reviews and the Museum’s protective curation of her paintings. I’ve come to appreciate her many moods and styles by just viewing each painting as moment in time, rather than tracing some impressionistic, abstract, or photographic realism period of development.