On Keeffe Georgia O'

About the Georgia O'Keeffe exhibition at the Centre Pompidou from 6 September to 6 December

Georgia O'Keeffe is one of those rare artists whose name is more famous than her work. We think we know her. But if you compare the mental image that spontaneously comes to mind when you hear her name, you may be surprised. One will remember the massive black rectangles of his sinister barns, the other the reds in heat of his erotic flowers. It is more complicated than with Rothko or Matisse. You could say a Rothko or a Matisse. But not here. There is a world between Georgia O' Keeffe and Georgia O' Keeffe. Why is she so unidentifiable? Does she have no style? More like too much than not enough.

Beginner's luck

The Guggenheim Museum's slogan is "Start at the top". This is a good way of inviting visitors to prefer a downhill rather than uphill tour of its spiral gallery.  But it is also a good way of encouraging artists to dare to start at the top. Like Georgia O' Keeffe.  Anaël Pigeat zooms in on this period in her article on this unknown celebrity. In Art Press. Nothing to do with the early career of Vincent van Gogh! Georgia O'Keeffe was as varnished as she was brilliant from the start. She was noticed. She made people fall in love with her. All with the simplicity and naturalness of those artists who, like her, move forward by letting themselves be guided through the material world by the inner voice of their spiritual world.  This instant success allowed Georgia O'Keeffe to be Georgia O'Keeffe. A free woman. But a real fish in water in influential circles.

Papillonne

Without getting too storytelling, Art Press provides key bio elements that explain the diversity of styles united under the same artist's label. It is thus recalled that Georgia O'Keeffe was one of the first to have the extreme audacity for her time to pose naked in front of a camera. It is not surprising that her paintings flirted with photography for a while. Georgia O'Keeffe is a butterfly. She is free. She is attracted, she studies, sublimates and then forgets. She is free then, she tries, she studies. And so much the worse if she sometimes transgresses boundaries that do not exist for her. And why should she settle? She seeks, she moves forward. Irresistible. She even charmed Duchamp.

Free

And what if this is what a real painter is all about? We can adore Soulages because he paints black and black and black in the same handkerchief. He has his quest like Georgia O'Keeffe. But Soulages makes us see the cosmos through a microscope, whereas Georgia O'Keeffe takes us on a tour of her personal museum in the form of a slide show of modern art.  From still life to body-painting. Patti Smith wrote: "I'm an American artist and I have no guilt*". Georgia O'Keeffe sees no harm in daring to be free. Perhaps that is what made her the American painter with the broadest palette of the twentieth century. For she was a true painter. She lived in painting and for painting. The proof?

"I am an American artist and have no sense of guilt.  

I love Cézanne

Anaël Pigeat tells how she surprised everyone when she first came to France by totally snubbing Paris. For her, France is Cézanne. She wanted to get away in front of the mythical majesty of the Sainte-Victoire mountain. This is called loving painting. And nature. For Georgia O'Kieffe has an obvious love for these silent places that speak to her in the secret language of contemplation. One is at once very much here and very much elsewhere in front of a Georgia O'Keeffe painting. She has taken the liberty of not locking herself into any one style. Even if it means not excelling anywhere. And to have signed no masterpiece in the end. Yes, one. A unique painter's journey through his century. Between life and art, Georgia O'Keffe chose art. But to live it.

Illustrations:

- Georgia O'Keefe - Red Hills with the Pedernal
- Georgias O'Keefe - Red Poppy