
I have a love\ hate relationship with Georgia O'Keeffe, I love her feminist realization, I love that she was married to one of the greatest photographers of the modern age, I love that she went to the Southwest and owned it with her imagery. My hate problem with her is that some of her paintings can be loosely described as having as much interest to me as a chick-flick, in fact, they may be the still version of a chick-flick with their vaginal and labiatic verve. But when I read that The Whitney Museum was having a show of O'Keeffe's abstract work, well I asked myself, O'Keeffe did abstraction? So I went to the show, wondering if it further my love or my hate relationship with Ms. O'Keeffe. When I got to the show it was quite obvious Georgia did abstract, in fact she did it before every one else did it. In 1914 at the grand old age of 17, she created extraordinary abstract imagery with charcoal and paper. It was so far out there I'm sure some of the art crowd at the time must have thought Georgia had come from anther planet. There are over 100 paintings, drawings, sculptures that each delight with their self sufficient individualism. After her early abstractions she discovered her imagery that included flowers, landscapes, object and still life's but in the 1940's she returned to abstract and that's when the sexually suggestive abstractions were first assigned in her tableau. The show is like a slow wave that covers you in warm ablutions. And to put a cherry on the cake there are photographs by Alfred Stieglitz of Georgia throughout her life. She lived to the grand old age of 99. I left the museum feeling grateful for what Georgia had given us all in the last century. She was a great relief even in the abstract...









