Art-y-Facts: Georgia on My Mind by Barbara Kolesar
Docent Dateline
No exhibition has taken me in more directions than our Centennial exhibition, Georgia O'Keeffe: Living Modern. Armed with great details from Phil Archer during our docent walk-through, I envisioned my tours would be solely focused on her art work. I soon came to realize that while O'Keeffe was the core of the exhibition, she was also a portal to many other expressions of art.
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All art is connected. O'Keeffe's extraordinary talent let us as docents use her work to begin the discussion and branch out to many forms of expression. For example, I found I was asked to lead tours which focused on photography. From Stieglitz's photographs, we got a sense of O’Keeffe’s aloof, saintly, posed character. He introduced O'Keeffe to the world, even before she became a famous artist, creating her public persona as a regal and remote artist with a detached bearing. The coy, flirtatious O'Keeffe photographed by Ansel Adams gave us a window into a playful side of her, warning us of the “earth cracking” because he caught her in a rare smile.
Detail: Bruce Weber, American, born 1946. Georgia O'Keeffe Holding Skull, Abiquiu, New Mexico, 1980. Gelatin silver print. Courtesy of Bruce Weber and Nan Bush. Installation photo of original artwork courtesy of Reynolda House Museum of American Art.
Museum visitors were fascinated by O'Keeffe's clothing. From the dramatic black capes, to the free flowing beige silk tunics, visitors were excited to understand how O'Keeffe treated herself as a canvas, draping her body in organic silhouettes, rich fabric, clear lines, and geometric forms. Amazed by the tiny stitching in the pin tucks, visitors were impressed by her handiwork, as well as her vision in preserving her clothing. Did you know that in the past five years, designers such as Valentino, Michael Kors and Gareth Pugh have put out O'Keeffe-inspired collections? Asked by a Magnet School to connect O'Keeffe's style to literature, I led the group in a discussion about the clean, taut, symmetry of her clothing and art in comparison to Steinbeck's terse, simple, beautiful style of writing. The tough masculine prose of Hemingway is reflected in O'Keeffe's androgynous persona. Her work is tightly cropped, just as Hemingway's words were simple, direct, personal, unadorned—probably a result of his beginnings as a journalist. A true minimalist, Hemingway believed “the greatest writers have the gift of brilliant brevity.” Continued on page three...
Welcome to Reynolda House! The following remarks were given by Don Eppert during the Fall Docent-Volunteer Association meeting on September 18, 2017, on behalf of the Front Desk Greeters at Reynolda. A greeter at Reynolda House wants to ensure that visitors experience three things: 1. A warm and engaging welcome and appreciation for their visit. 2. Efficient processing and preparation for their visit (in tandem with the visitor experience team), including: a. Guidelines for photography, cell phones, handbags and furnishings; b. Orienting to the Museum, directions to the orientation gallery and restrooms; c. An overview of the floor plans, routing and protection officer support. 3. Upon leaving, a genuine "thank you" for coming to Reynolda with encouragement to return and tell others. The key benefits for being a Front Desk Greeter are meeting visitors from all over the world (perhaps even speaking to them in their native tongue), working with the very capable front desk staff and their manager, Cindy Byrd, and hearing visitors say what a great time they had at Reynolda House! Don’t you want to be a front desk greeter, too?
VOLUME 17, ISSUE 2