The artist Georgia O’Keeffe is remembered as a painter of Southwestern landscapes and flowers, but it turns out her early works were done at the University of Virginia where she studied and taught. Now, UVA plans to show those as part of an exhibit called Unexpected O’Keeffe.
As a young artist, Georgia O’Keeffe got off to a promising start in New York, but when her family fell on hard times she decided to abandon her career as an artist and return to her parents’ home in Charlottesville. Professor Elizabeth Turner says women were admitted to summer courses at UVA, and Georgia’s sisters were learning about an exciting new way to paint.
“Her sisters encouraged her in the summer of 1912 to come listen to a lecture given about this method. It was meant to think abstractly about composition.”
Turner says O’Keeffe embraced this approach with water color sketches of hot summers on grounds.
“The depth of the greenery, the shadows, the warmth of the sun, the browning of the lawn, the idea of that heat.”
Today, says museum director Matthew McLendon, this new approach to art – developed by Columbia University Professor Arthur Dow -- might be called mindfulness.
“I don’t think Dow would have used that term, but that is kind of what his approach is about – inhabiting your space, slowing down, being mindful of how you are composing that space on the page.”
During five summers of study and teaching at UVA, O’Keeffe would also absorb the beauty of the Blue Ridge – hiking and camping in the mountains, and she would establish her brand as a strong, pioneering woman with a singular artistic and personal style. The show runs through January 27th, and admission is free.
The University of Virginia is a financial supporter of Radio IQ.
