A New Show Traces How an Ambitious Young Georgia O’Keeffe Transitioned From Intimate Drawings to Her Masterly Oil Paintings—See Images Here

While museums around the globe are closed to the public, we
are spotlighting each day an inspiring exhibition. Even if you
can’t see it in person, allow us to give you a virtual
look. 

“Georgia O’Keeffe: Abstract Variations”
Seattle Art Museum

What the museum says: “At the heart of the
installation is Music, Pink and Blue, No. 1, a
recent addition to the Seattle Art Museum’s collection and a gift
of late trustee Barney A. Ebsworth. The first complete expression
of O’Keeffe’s personal brand of modernism, ‘Abstract Variations’
brings Music, Pink and Blue, No. 1 together
with Music, Pink and Blue, No. 2, from the
collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, for the first
time in Seattle, along with loans from museums across the
country.

Music, Pink and Blue, No. 1 is O’Keeffe’s first
major oil painting. She painted it after moving to New York City in
1918, departing from the more intimate media of charcoal and
watercolor to take up the more public and ambitious medium of oil.
Examples of her earlier drawings in the exhibition illustrate this
transition, while subsequent paintings demonstrate what came later
in O’Keeffe’s work. Also on view are photographs of the artist by
Alfred Stieglitz.”

Why it’s worth a look: The show had barely
opened at the Seattle Art Museum before national closures were
enforced. When museums reopen, this show is one to seek out for an
enlightening look at a lesser known aspect of O’Keeffe’s storied
career.

Though best known for her oil paintings of lush petals and
blossoms, O’Keeffe was a master of more intimately scaled
watercolors and charcoal drawings, where she was able to practice a
brand of abstraction that looks more akin to the work of Bauhaus
artists like László Moholy-Nagy with geometric shapes and
linear compositions. Alongside the drawings and paintings are
photographs that Alfred Stiegletz took of O’Keeffe, who served as
his muse and later became his wife. In the meantime, the
museum is also offering some interactive aspects online.

What it looks like:

The post A New Show Traces How an Ambitious Young Georgia
O’Keeffe Transitioned From Intimate Drawings to Her Masterly Oil
Paintings—See Images Here appeared first on artnet
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