"It is surprising to see how many people separate the objective from the
abstract ... The abstraction is often the most definite form for the
intangible thing in myself that I can only clarify in paint." -O'Keeffe
Three artists working at around the same time, with a common forward-looking orientation that includes a certain blurring of representation and abstraction that makes the 'modernism' label apt, and all interested in the possibilities of landscape and flowers as subjects - also, all women.
This was the first time that I'd come across Margaret Preston, and I quite liked her. And I hadn't before seen a whole group of Cossington Smith's paintings together, and was taken with her colours, especially the blue-greens.
But Georgia O'Keeffe was, of course, the main event. I think most if not all of the pieces came from the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, and the selection leans a bit in the direction of her landscapes and more abstraction-tending paintings (there's only a couple of, relatively early, flowers). O'Keeffe is probably one of the artists whose work I spend most time looking at in books but, like the previous exhibition of hers that I've seen (Helsinki, a few years back), this one reminded me how much more her paintings glow when actually present.
The exhibition also brought home the number of different modes in which O'Keeffe worked, including the way that earthiness and light coexist in her hues.
And, most of all, it reminded me of how wonderful all of these paintings are, and how much one can get lost within them.
(w/ Laura and Rob)
Three artists working at around the same time, with a common forward-looking orientation that includes a certain blurring of representation and abstraction that makes the 'modernism' label apt, and all interested in the possibilities of landscape and flowers as subjects - also, all women.
Cossington Smith - "Landscape With Flowering Peach" (1932)
This was the first time that I'd come across Margaret Preston, and I quite liked her. And I hadn't before seen a whole group of Cossington Smith's paintings together, and was taken with her colours, especially the blue-greens.
Preston - "Implement Blue" (1927)
Cossington Smith - "Landscape at Pentecost" (1929)
But Georgia O'Keeffe was, of course, the main event. I think most if not all of the pieces came from the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, and the selection leans a bit in the direction of her landscapes and more abstraction-tending paintings (there's only a couple of, relatively early, flowers). O'Keeffe is probably one of the artists whose work I spend most time looking at in books but, like the previous exhibition of hers that I've seen (Helsinki, a few years back), this one reminded me how much more her paintings glow when actually present.
The exhibition also brought home the number of different modes in which O'Keeffe worked, including the way that earthiness and light coexist in her hues.
And, most of all, it reminded me of how wonderful all of these paintings are, and how much one can get lost within them.
(w/ Laura and Rob)
