Georgia O'Keeffe by Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza

Georgia O?Keeffe 20 / 4 - 8/ 8 20 21

Cover Georgia O'Keeffe New York Street with Moon 1925 Oil on canvas. 122 x 77 cm Carmen Thyssen- Bornemisza Collection on loan at the Museo Nacional Thyssen- Bornemisza, Madrid

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Contents

Georgia O?Keeffe

South Carolina and Texas: Early works

New York: Abstractions

New York/ Lake George

Flowers and the natural world

First visits to New Mexico

Exploring New Mexico

World travels

Her studio

Restoration

The exhibition explained by its curator

Educational proposal

Georgia O'Keeffe at the museum

Related initiatives and contents

Information and credits

Alfred Stieglitz Georgia O'Keeffe, 1920 - 1922 Gelatine silver print Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. Donated by The Georgia O'Keeffe Foundation

Georgia O?Keeffe The Georgia O?Keeffe exhibition brings together 90 works that illustrate the long and prolific career of one of the foremost practitioners of twentieth- century avant- garde trends in the United States. GeorgiaO?Keeffe(1887?1986) was a traveling artist who, after arriving at her destination, set about exploring it on foot at a leisurely pace. Her infinite curiosity and interest in the unknown spurred her to travel unceasingly throughout her long life, first around the United States and later on,during the last third of her life, to all the continents. Her changes of surroundings are the origin of her entire oeuvre. The exhibition layout, which is bot chronological and thematic, allows visitors to discover her deep connection with the places she visited and her empathy with nature. O?Keeffe?s works like wise show the world enclosed in the small objects she collected during her walks: flowers, shells and bones, which she enlarged and simplified in successive studies and series. In some her precise language accurately reflects visible reality, whereas in others she seems to distance herself from the object of inspiration to produce a harmonious abstract combination of forms and colors.

2 South Carolina and Texas: Early works In 1916, Georgia O?Keeffe dazzled New York?s cultural elite with a series of abstract charcoal drawings. From then onwards she became one of the country?s principal representatives of modernism. O?Keeffe had studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Students League in New York, but it was Arthur Wesley Dow?s teachings, deeply marked by the compositional principles of Japanese art, that encouraged her to produce works which were based on nature but tended towards abstraction. In 1915, while working as an ar teacher in South Carolina and Texas, she began blazing her trail with these drawings,which evoked the rhythm of nature.

Georgia O?Keeffe

Georgia?O'Keeffe Early Abstraction, 1915 Charcoal on paper.??61 x 47.3 cm Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee. Donation from the Jane Bradley Pettit Foundation y The Georgia O?Keeffe Foundation, M1997.189

Although Georgia O?Keeffe is known for her mastery of color, she began her artistic career with a group of works in which she deliberately avoid edit. This decision helps understand the importance of drawing in her creative process.

Georgia?O'Keeffe Inside the Tent While at U. of Virginia (reverse: Untitled (Abstraction), 1916 Oil on canvas. 46.3 x 60 cm Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. Donated by The Georgia O'Keeffe Foundation, 20 0 6.5.39

Georgia O?Keeffe

This early work shows O?Keeffe?s fondness for losing herself in nature. It also attests to her interest in seeking new angles of vision? in this case from inside a tent. This canvas, painted on both sides, illustrates two of the artist?s most common compositional schemes: an inverted ?v? on the recto and a spiral on the verso. The artist used these two forms throughout her career both for her paintings with an abstract appearance and for her representational works.

Georgia O'Keeffe Blue II, 1916 Watercolor on paper. 70 .8 x 56.5 cm Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. Donation from The Burnett Foundation, 1997.6.13

Georgia O?Keeffe

«It was in the fall of 1915 that I first had the idea that what I had been taught was of little value to me except for the use of my materials as a language?I was alone and singularly free, working in to my own unknown?no one to satisfy but myself. I began with charcoal and paper and decided not to use any color until it was impossible to do what I wanted in black and white. I believe it was June before I needed blue.?

Georgia O?Keeffe, 1976

Georgia?O'Keeffe Evening Star No. VI, 1917 Watercolor on paper. 22.9 x 30 .5 cm Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe. Donation from The Burnett Foundation, 1997.18.3

During her time in South Carolina, and especially in Texas, O?Keeffe felt a powerful connection with her surroundings, which is reflected in her watercolors. These vividly hued works show her fondness for infinite horizons. Also dating from this period is a series of female nudes whos ecolors seem to establish a dialogue with her landscapes.

Georgia O?Keeffe

«We often walked away from the town in the late afternoon sun. There were no paved roads and no fences ? no trees ? it was like the ocean but it was wide, wide land. The evening star would be high in the sunset sky when it was still broad day light. That evening star fascinated me? I had nothing but to walk into nowhere and the wide sunset space with the star.? Georgia O?Keeffe, 1976

3 New York: Abstractions In 1918, O?Keeffe settled in New York to devote herself fully to painting.The organic compositions from this period made her a pioneer of abstraction. In some works she showed an interest in creating a visual equivalent to music while in others she reflected on her intense experience of the Texan landscape. She also produced her first abstract flower paintings. When they were shown in Manhattan in the early 1920 s these works sparked psychoanalytic readings from certain critic sand triggered debates on the relevance of the artist?s gender to her oeuvre.

Georgia O?Keeffe

Georgia O'Keeffe Series I - From the Plains, 1919 Oil on canvas. 68.6 x 58.4 cm Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. Donation from The Burnett Foundation, 20 0 7.1.13

«?From the Plains I?[?] were painted in New York months after I left that wide world. And years later, I painted it twice again. The cattle in the pens lowing for their calves day and night was a sound that has always haunted me. It had a regula rhythmic beat like the old Penitente songs,repeating the same rhythms over and over all through the day and night. It was loud and raw under the stars in that wide empty country.?

Georgia O?Keeffe, 1976

Georgia O?Keeffe

Georgia O'Keeffe From the Plains II, 1954 Oil on canvas.??122 x 183 cm Thyssen- Bornemisza National Museum, Madrid, 696 (1997.36)

4 New York/ Lake George Beginning in the late 1910 s, O?Keeffe divided her time between the city and the countryside. Her painting reflected this contrast between the winters and springs spent in Manhattan and the summers and autumns at Lake George, a nature spot north of New York State. After moving into a modern sky scraper, she set about painting the big city,which became the modern subject par excellence for artists in the 1920 s. The views she produced of Manhattan are exceptions in her output, as she generally focused on depicting nature. Around the same time, she also portrayed the other, rural America she discovered during her periods of seclusion in the country side. One of her favorite motifs was barns, which reminded her of her childhood on a farm in Wisconsin.

Georgia O?Keeffe

Georgia?O'Keeffe Ritz Tower, 1928 Oil on canvas. 10 2.2 x 35.6 Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, 20 18.14.1

Georgia O'Keeffe New York Street with Moon, 1925 Oil on canvas.??122 x 77 cm Carmen Thyssen- Bornemisza Collection on loan to the Thyssen- Bornemisza National Museum, Madrid, CTB.1981.76

Georgia O'Keeffe Untitled (New York Street with Moon), 1925 Graphite on paper. 27.9 x 21.6 cm Georgia O?Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe. Donated by The Georgia O'Keeffe Foundation, 20 0 6.5.98

In 1925,O?Keeffe moved into the Shelton, a newly built skyscraper. She seems to have decided to start depicting Manhattan around that time. However, when she painted New York Street with Moon, the first work in the series, the artist descended from her modern watchtower to wander around the streets of the Big Apple in search of motifs, continuing her unshakable daily routine. During her walks O?Keeffe made sketches. Some of these drawings, such as Untitled (New York Street with Moon), reflect the final composition in detail and even indicate the colors she intended to use for the canvas. 20

«Later, when I was looking for a place to live, I decided to try the Shelton? I had never lived up so high before and was so excited that I began talking about trying to paint New York.? Georgia O?Keeffe, 1976

Georgia O'Keeffe Shelton with Sunspots, N.Y., 1926 Oil on canvas. 123.2 × 76.8 cm The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago. Donated by Leigh B. Block (1985.20 6)

5 Flowers and the natural world Flowers are one of the most frequently recurring subjects in O?Keeffe?s work. Poppies, irises and jonquils share the picture space with other natural objects such as leaves and shells, which the artist collected during her walks and later captured on canvas. In some works the painter?s interest lay in progressively abstracting the natural form. In others the sharp focus and framing seem to recall a blown- up photograph. These bold compositions, designed to get busy, modern city- dwellers to stop and look at the small details, made her one the most highly acclaimed artists in America, praised by critics and public alike.

Georgia O?Keeffe

Georgia O'Keeffe Jimson Weed/ White Flower No. 1, 1932 Oil on canvas. 121.9 x 10 1.6 cm Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 20 14.35

Georgia O'Keeffe Shell and Old Shingle V, 1926 Oil on canvas.??76.2 x 46 cm Thyssen- Bornemisza National Museum, Madrid, 698 (1980 .10 )

Georgia O?Keeffe

Georgia O'Keeffe Shell and Old Shingle VI, 1926 Oil on canvas. 76.8 x 46.4 cm Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis, Missouri. Donated by Charles E. Claggett in memory of Blanche Fischel Claggett, 345.198

«I have picked flowers where I found them ? have picked up sea shells and rocks and pieces of wood where there were sea shells and rocks and pieces of wood that I liked. When I found the beautiful white bones on the desert I picked them up and took them home too.? Georgia O?Keeffe, 1976

Georgia O'Keeffe Oriental Poppies, 1927 Oil on canvas. 76.7 x 10 2.1 cm Collection of the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Museum acquisition, 1937.1

Georgia O?Keeffe

Georgia O'Keeffe Autumn Leaves - Lake George, N.Y., 1924 Oil on canvas. 51.4 x 41.3 cm Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio. Museum acquisition, Howald Fund II, 1981.0 0 6

Georgia O'Keeffe Black Abstraction, 1927 Oil on canvas. 76.2 x 10 2.2 cm The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Alfred Stieglitz Collection, 1969 (69.278.2)

O?Keeffe?s work always fluctuated between representation and abstraction, and Black Abstraction is a good example. Despite its non- representational appearance, the artist later explained that this canvas captures her last visual impressions before going to sleep under the effect of an anesthetic she was given for an operation.

Georgia O?Keeffe

Georgia O'Keeffe White Abstraction, 1927 Oil on canvas. 86.4 x 35.6 cm Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. Donation from The Burnett Foundation, 20 0 7.1.20

6 First visits to New Mexico In the summer of 1929, O?Keeffe traveled to the north of New Mexico,an experience that would change her life forever. The majestic landscape, the powerful presence of native American culture and the region?s Hispanic past inspired a new shift in her art, as did the bones of dead animals she came across during her walks.

Georgia O?Keeffe

Georgia?O'Keeffe Grey Blue & Black- Pink Circle, 1929 Oil on canvas. 91.4 x 121.92 cm Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas, Donated by The Georgia O'Keeffe Foundation, 1994.54

During her first stay in New Mexico, O?Keeffe watched several native ceremonial dances. She described them as follows in a letter: ?All ? every fiber seemed to go off like fire ? and ? the way he enjoyed it all ? I just almost died ? It wasn?t just the dance ? It was the human thing that happened ? the transformation and the pleasure in it??. In Grey Blue & Black?Pink Circle, the artist made use of her least representational language to convey her powerful impressions of this experience. The central forms referred to in the title recall the Hopi Indians?headdresses and the surrounding colored spiral samplify the suggested movement of the dance and the rhythms of the universe. 32

Georgia O'Keeffe Ram?s Head, White Hollyhock- Hills (Ram?s Head and White Hollyhock, New Mexico), 1935 Oil on canvas.??76.2 x 91.4 cm Brooklyn Museum, New York. Bequeathed by Edith and Milton Lowenthal, 1992.11.28

O?Keeffe collected the skulls, bones and antlers she came across during her walks around the desert of New Mexico. When summer ended, before going back to New York, she put them in a barrel and shipped them to the city to be able to carry on painting this arid land even when she was far away. For the painter these skeletal remains embodied the cycles of mortality and new life that recur endlessly in nature. In this work a skull floats above the mountains in a statement about endurance, transcendence and the eternal.

Georgia O?Keeffe

Georgia O'Keeffe My Front Yard, Summer, 1941 Oil on canvas. 50 .9 x 76.5 cm Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe. Donated by The Georgia O'Keeffe Foundation, 20 0 6.5.173

O?Keeffe discovered the Ghost Ranch area in 1934 and went back there every summer after that. In 1940 she bought Rancho de los Burros, an adobe house located in this spot surrounded by rocky red cliffs and the Chama River Valley. In My Front Yard, Summer the artist captured the views from her new home, notably the Pedernal, a mountain with a characteristic silhouette that appears in many of her compositions.

«When I got to New Mexico that was mine. As soon as I saw it that was my country. I?d never seen anything like it before, but it fitted to me exactly.? Georgia O?Keeffe, 1977

Georgia O?Keeffe

Alfred Stieglitz Georgia O?Keeffe. After Return from New Mexico Gelatin silver print Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. Donated by The Georgia O'Keeffe Foundation

7 Exploring New Mexico During the 1930 s and 1940 s, O?Keeffe spent nearly every summer in New Mexico. Traveling in her car ? converted into a studio on wheels ? the artist explored the area?s spectacular hilly terrain. Notable among all the spots she discovered are the two she christened White Place and Black Place. Animal bones reappeared in a series of paintings focusing on pelvises. Despite the metaphysical nature of many of these landscapes, O?Keeffe always denied any link with surrealism.

Georgia O?Keeffe

Georgia O'Keeffe Untitled (Black Place), 1944- 1945 Graphite on paper.??45.1 x 29.8 cm Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. Donated by The Georgia O'Keeffe Foundation, 20 0 6.5.185

O?Keeffe discovered the hills she christened Black Place in 1937, during a trip to the Bisti Badlands in Navajo country. This arid place fascinated her so much that she made a number of camping trips lasting several days to be able to paint it. The result is a series of works showing the jagged cleft between the two hills in increasingly abstract compositions. The drawing Untitled (Black Place) makes it possible to reconstruct her painstaking creative process. The artist not only precisely defines the main lines of the composition in it but adds numbers as references to the colors she would later apply to the canvas. Before going about the final work, O?Keeffe had already decided on the tiniest details. 38

Maria Chabot Georgia O'Keeffe, Breakfast, The Black Place, 1944 Gelatin silver print Maria Chabot Archive. Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. Donated by Maria Chabot

Georgia O?Keeffe

Georgia?O'Keeffe Black Place I, 1944 Oil on canvas.??66 x 76.5 cm San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Donated by Charlotte Mack, 54.3536

«I was the sort of child that ate around the raisin on thecookie andate around the hole in the doughnut, saving either the raisin or the hole for the last and best. So, since I probably hadn't changed much, when I started painting the pelvis bones I was most interested in the holes in the bones ? what I saw through them ? particularly the blue from holding them up in the sun against the sky, as one is apt to do when one seems to have more sky than earth inone's world. Sun- bleached bones were most wonderful against the blue ? that blue that will always be there as it is now after all man's destruction is finished." Georgia O?Keeffe, 1944

Georgia O?Keeffe

Georgia O'Keeffe Pelvis with the Distance, 1943 Oils on canvas. 60 .6 x 75.6 cm Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, Indianapolis. Donated by Anne Marmon Greenleaf in memory of Caroline Marmon Fesler, 77.229

World travels In 1945, O?Keeffe bought a decrepit ranch in the small village of Abiquiú and moved to New Mexico permanently four years later. Her new home, especially one of the patio doors, appears in many of her works. From the early 1950 s onwards the artist alternated country life with a series of international trips that took her to all the continents; the many hours she spent flying led her to adopt a new perspective. Amazed by the beauty of the world seen from high up, she produced works that seem to link up with her early abstract oeuvre.

Georgia O?Keeffe

«This door is why I bought the house.» Georgia O?Keeffe, 1977

Georgia O'Keeffe Black Door with Red, 1954 Oil on canvas. 121.9 x 213.4 cm Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA. Bequeathed by Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 89.63

Throughout her long career, O?Keeffe produced series that allowed her to depict the same subject from various perspectives. The patio of her new home in Abiquiú was a recurring theme from 1946 to 1960 . O?Keeffe obsessively focused her attention on one of the doors in a process in which the details are reduced to a bare minimum. These sober, light- filled paintings seem to foreshadow the minimalist style of American painting of the 1960 s. 44

«It is breathtaking as one rises up over the world one has been living in? The world all simplified and beautiful and clear- cut in patterns like time and history will simplify and straighten out these times of ours. » These words, written on a plane, explain O?Keeffe?s fascination with flying.

Georgia O'Keeffe Drawing IX, 1959 Charcoal on paper. 47.3 x 62.5 cm Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe. Donated by The Georgia O'Keeffe Foundation, 20 0 6.5.275

During her plane journeys, the artist made sketches on scraps of paper that later led to a series of charcoal drawings. After the drawings came the oil paintings. Although they seem to depict the winding course of rivers, the titles indicate that the compositions can be read as pure abstractions.

Georgia O?Keeffe

Georgia O'Keeffe Winter Road I, 1963 Oil on canvas. 56.4 x 46.4 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington, donation from The Georgia O'Keeffe Foundation, 1995.4.1

From the window in her bedroom, O'Keeffe could see the road depicted in this painting. She gazed upon this view every day and here she seems to have painted over the snow during a tough New Mexico winter. Its wavy and stylised arch is reminiscent of the meticulous shapes in Japanese calligraphy. It is a minimalist composition whose subject is only revealed by its title. This road was O'Keeffe's connection to the world, and it seems to allude to the numerous trips the artist made round the planet during the last third of her long life. 46

«The unexplainable thing in nature that makes me feel the world is big far beyond my understanding ? to understand maybe by trying to put it into form. To find the feeling of infinity on the horizon line or just over the next hill.» Georgia O?Keeffe, 1976

Georgia O'Keeffe Sky Above Clouds (Yellow Horizon and Clouds), 1976- 1977 Oil on canvas. 121.9 x 213.4 cm Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. Donated by The Georgia O'Keeffe Foundation, 20 0 6.5.275

Georgia O?Keeffe

Maria Chabot Georgia O?Keeffe taking a motorbike ride to Abiquiu with Maurice Grosser, 1944 Gelatin silver print Maria Chabot Archive. Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. Donated by Maria Chabot

9 Her studio After her many travels and countless walks, Georgia O?Keeffe returned to her studio, where she worked alone. There, away from the gaze of others, she continued her creative process, which has been reconstructed here with the help of some of the objects from her atelier and a video on the technical study of the five canvases from the Thyssen- Bornemisza collections. Beginning in her student days in the early 190 0 s, O?Keeffe developed a working method to which she remained faithful throughout her long career that spanned more than six decades. The paintings of this methodical, persevering, thorough and technically skilled artist reveal a deliberate and meticulously executed plan to communicate an unambiguous visual experience. There are few involuntary or even spontaneous details in her pictures. Forms, colors, textures, unpainted backgrounds and even the overall sizes and ratios of height to width are all carefully calculated. 49

Georgia O?Keeffe

River rocks Georgia O?Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe

Like Friedrich Nietzsche, who claimed that to write one?s feet needed to be involved in order for thoughts to flow, O?Keeffe walked in order to paint subsequently. During the hours she spent in nature, the artist also picked up the things she came across, such as these river rocks. She then took them back to her studio, where they became subject matter for her works. After being captured on canvas, these trophies joined her particular collection, which decorated her successive studios and homes. 50

Tin box with charcoal smudgers. Georgia O?Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe

O?Keeffe always carried around a sketchbook on her daily walks to jot down the sensations of her experience in nature. She later resumed work in her studio, where drawing also played an important role. The artist, who was an excellent draftswoman from the early days, sketched the composition on the canvas in graphite or charcoal. These drawing lines are sometimes visible to the naked eye in her compositions.

Georgia O?Keeffe

Box of brushes Georgia O?Keeffe Museum of Art, Santa Fe

O?Keeffe made no significant changes during the execution of her works and conscientiously stuck to her initial idea. When it came to applying the paint, her brushwork was sharp and confident. She generally used flat brushes for greater precision.

Color cards: shades of cadmium, shades of black to gray and shades of earth tones. Georgia O?Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe

After the artist?s death, some 320 color cards were found in her studio. Many of them are dated and include manuscript notes about the mixtures used. O?Keeffe never spoke about these cards, but they played a key part in her creative process. They enabled her to test colors until she achieved the desired hue and value. She also experimented with additives such as resin or oil. She used the cards over and over again, placing them beneath her glass palette so that she could see them while she mixed the colors.

Georgia O?Keeffe

Glass palette Georgia O?Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe

O?Keeffe mixed colors in her glass palette until achieving a completely homogeneous tone. She then applied it to the canvas in a single, very light layer, which often did not cover the weave.

Winsor & Newton tubes and boxes made of card from the 1930 s and 1940 s. Winsor & Newton Archive

Throughout her career Georgia O?Keeffe used commercial paints, often made by European manufacturers. From the early 1920 s to the end of her life she employed the same core colors: alizarin crimson, lead white, zinc white, viridian green, cerulean blue, cobalt blue, cadmium yellow, lead red, iron reds and iron ochres and umbers.

Georgia O?Keeffe

«Georgia O?Keeffe Turns Dead Bones to Live Art», at Life Magazine, 14 February 1938

When Alfred Stieglitz showed his photographic portraits of Georgia O?Keeffe in 1921, the artist?s enigmatic, sensual, mystic and modern appearance became associated with her works. O?Keeffe was immortalized by some of the great photographers of her day and cultivated an image with a powerful media impact through the articles published by major magazines like Vogue, Vanity Fair and Life. These publications present her homes and the environment in which she lived and worked as essential to understanding the artist. Here she is shown first in cowboy garb, lugging the bones she found in New Mexico, and later beside them in her exclusive New York penthouse, where she took them to be able to carry on painting her beloved desert. 56

Georgia O?Keeffe's colours Winsor & Newton, specialized in painting materials of the highest quality, supports the exhibition Georgia O?Keeffe with the loan of materials needed to reconstruct the North American artist's creative process, as shown in the last room of the exhibition. In this framework, they show us the artist's color palette and her use of materials.

With Marta Ruiz del Árbol, exhibition curator; Clara Marcellán, curator of modern painting and Dale Kronkright, head of conservation, Georgia O?Keeffe Museum

Georgia O?Keeffe

Shell and Old Shingle V: image of the painting with visible light / image of verso with transmitted light / back with original protection by the artist, with inscriptions and labels

Restoration Owing to the first retrospective show of Georgia O'Keeffe in Spain, the museum decided to embark on research of the five paintings that are part of its collections, dated between 1921 and 1957, using them to go into greater depth on the artist's technique. Further information

Technical study

Watch video

Study on Georgia O'Keeffe's pictorial technique through her works in the Thyssen- Bornemisza collections.

Georgia O?Keeffe

11 The exhibition explained by its curator

Watch video

A complete journey through O'Keeffe's artistic career, starting with her oeuvre from the 1910 s, which made her a pioneer of abstraction, moving on to her famous flowers and views of New York ? vaulting her to a position as one of the main trailblazers of modernity in her country ? to her New Mexico paintings, the outcome of her fascination with the landscape and mix of cultures in this remote region. 60

Virtual tour

The online show

Explore the exhibition from your computer or mobile device, wearing virtual reality glasses. The tour offers a complete journey through Georgia O'Keeffe's art career, a unique opportunity to discover and admire the works by this fascinating artist, whose presence outside the United States is truly exceptional.

Georgia O?Keeffe

Live news on the exhibition Instagram Video. Marta Ruiz del Árbol, curator of the Georgia O?Keeffe exhibition, presents this great American artist. Video. Georgia O'Keeffe's works in the Restoration Workshop being prepared for the exhibition. Video. Print catalogue of the Georgia O'Keeffe exhibition with Catali Garrigues and Ángela Villaverde.

12 Educational proposal Watercolour swatches for artists from Winsor and Newton Sketchbook, Georgia O?Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe

Have you ever seen an artist's studio? What do you think Georgia O'Keeffe's workspace is like? Do we place importance on our spaces? What is your workspace like? Does it inspire you? 63

Georgia O?Keeffe

Georgia O'Keeffe Proposal for thinking and doing An artist's studio is a personal and intimate space, where you can find not only incredibly interesting objects, but also learn about their organisation methods, their materials, working styles and even their emotional and intellectual processes. It is where they conceive of theirworks long before they exist. Taking a glimpse into an artist's studio is a special opportunity to see a small piece of their world, an atmosphere that is undoubtedly unique and special. Georgia O?Keeffe designed and adapted her houses and studios to make them places where she felt the best, in complete and utter harmony with the landscape. These spaces are so vitally important for understanding her oeuvre. You could even consider them part of her, since ? like her paintings ? they are an expression of her relationship to the world and reveal her essence. Today, Georgia O'Keeffe's house- studio can be visited. It is part of the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe. You can obtain further information on its website. And if you do explore this website, the windows will surely catch your eye. They were very important to her for expressing her close bond with nature, as they connected the inside space to the resplendent large mountains and valleys surrounding the house. 64

In this context, we would like to suggest a little exercise inspired by stones, natural items in Georgia O'Keeffe's studio that we can see in the temporary exhibition. Change some of the things you've got in your workspace. Search out the objects that are truly important to you or that you hold dear. They could be natural ? like with Georgia O'Keeffe ? or any type, as long as they inspire you. Change your space? You could make a drawing of what your ideal workspace would be like, or the objects that you would have there.

Georgia O'Keeffe Clam and Mussel, 1926 Oil on canvas. 22.9 x 17.8 cm Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. Donated by The Georgia O'Keeffe Foundation, 20 0 6.5.10 7

Georgia O'Keeffe at the museum With five paintings in its collections, the Thyssen- Bornemisza National Museum is the gallery with the most works by painter Georgia O'Keeffe outside of her country. Further information

Thyssen- Bornemisza Collection

Biography

Georgia O'Keeffe Sun Prairie, 1887- Santa Fe, 1986

Georgia O'Keeffe is one of the leading avant- garde artists of the first half of the twentieth century in the United States. Born on a farm in Wisconsin, she studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Students League in New York, but it was Arthur Wesley Dow?s teachings that provided her with an alternative to the predominant trends on the American art scene of the period. In 1915, while working as an art teacher in South Carolina and Texas, she began experimenting with non- figurative art. She produced a series of abstract charcoal drawings that found their way into the hands of photographer and gallery owner Alfred Stieglitz, who immediately decided to exhibit them at his gallery, 291. From then onwards her fame did not cease to grow; by the mid- 1920 s, O'Keeffe had become one of the most famous artists in the country, known for her radical depictions of flowers and her paintings of New York skyscrapers, a symbol of American modernity par excellence.

In 1929, O'Keeffe made the first of her many trips to New Mexico. The remote region?s mountainous terrain and mixture of cultures inspired her to pursue a new direction in her art. Over the next two decades, she spent most of her summers living and working inNew Mexico, andmade it her permanent home in 1949. In the 1950 s, despite having never previously left America, the artist embarked on the first of a series of international trips to all the continents. The many hours she spent flying inspired a series of views from anaeroplanewindow. During her final years, in which she experimented with pottery owing to failing eyesight, she received numerous awards and many exhibitions were held in her honour.

Alfred Stieglitz Georgia O'Keeffe, 1920 - 1922 Gelatin silver print Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. Donated by The Georgia O'Keeffe Foundation

Georgia O'Keeffe Abstraction. Blind I, 1921 Oil on canvas. 71 x 61 cm Thyssen- Bornemisza National Museum, Madrid

Abstraction. Blind I, hitherto entitled simply Abstraction or Abstraction I, one of the four paintings by O?Keeffe in the permanent collection of the Museo Thyssen- Bornemisza, is among her first abstract compositions. It is painted in herunmistakeablestyle of subtle, almost invisible brushstrokes in tones that are very neutral except for the red and yellow bands that cross the composition. As on many other occasions, the painter captures the magical atmosphere of the night in a mysterious image that may recall the sight of planets around a glistening moon.

Georgia O'Keeffe New York street with Moon, 1925 Oil on canvas. 122 x 77 cm Carmen Thyssen- Bornemisza Collection on loan at the Thyssen- Bornemisza National Museum

?One can?t paint New York as it is, but rather as it is felt.?With these words, the North American painter Georgia O?Keeffe neatly conveys her passion for the skyscraper city, as well as her idea of art as a medium for expressing her emotions and her vision of the world. In New York with Moon, the first of her many views of the great metropolis, the dusk sky and the moon, peeping out from fluffy clouds, are framed by towering buildings cast in shadow, in the centre of which there is a streetlight with a somewhat unearthly aura. The simplified forms and the low- angled composition, reminiscent of photography and of Precisionism, contribute to the personal symbolism characteristic of her mature work. 70

Georgia O'Keeffe Shell and Old Shingle V, 1926 Oil on canvas.??76.2 x 46 cm Thyssen- Bornemisza National Museum, Madrid

In the early 1920 s Georgia O?Keeffe produced isolated images of simple shapes found in nature such as shells, bones and flowers, in reaction to the excessive intellectualisation and insularity to which painting was being subjected at the time. Shell and Old Shingle V, executed in 1926, belongs to a set of small compositions devoted to these two natural objects.

Georgia O'Keeffe From the Plains II, 1954 Oil on canvas. 122 x 183 cm Thyssen- Bornemisza National Museum, Madrid

From the Plains II, dated 1954, is the second version of a painting executed in 1919, thirty- five years earlier, in Amarillo, Texas. In the early painting, which is vertical in format, O?Keeffe had wished to represent, according to her own testimony, the fascination she had felt on witnessing cattle being herded across the vast plains of this arid part of the country, kicking up dust and causing a deafening din. In this second rendering, the vastness of the plains of Texas is even more imposing, heightened by the horizontal format of the canvas and by the flaming colours of sunset. 72

Georgia O'Keeffe White Iris No. 7, 1957 Oil on canvas. 10 2 x 76.2 cm Thyssen- Bornemisza National Museum, Madrid

White Iris No. 7 is a good example of the painter?s artistic interest in flower shapes. As in other similar works, O?Keeffe depicts them as if viewed from a close- up camera lens, owing perhaps to the influence of the avant- garde photographers belonging to Alfred Stieglitz?s circle. Also derived from the photographic framing technique is the manner of cutting off the subject- matter at the edges, a device that further adds to the abstraction of her compositions.

Related initiatives and contents Activities, immersive virtual tour, publications, special actions on social media, music... The Thyssen- Bornemisza National Museum has started up several initiatives to delve deeper into this temporary exhibition.

Activities

Georgia O'Keeffe Black Mesa Landscape, New Mexico. Out Back of Marie's II, 1930 Oil on canvas, 61.6 × 92.1 cm Georgia O?Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe. Donation from The Burnett Foundation, 1997.6.15

Georgia O?Keeffe conference series

From 26 May to 30 June, there will be a conference series on Wednesdays at 5.30 pm. Participants include Cody Hartley (director of the Georgia O?Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe), Roxana Robinson (writer and Georgia O?Keeffe biographer), Wanda Corn (professor emerita at Stanford and curator of the exhibition "Georgia O?Keeffe: Living Modern"), Susana Pérez and MartaPalao(Thyssen Museum Restoration Area), ClaraMarcellán(technical curator of the show) and Marta Ruiz del Árbol (exhibition curator in Madrid). Further information

Educational visits: Georgia O?Keeffe

Virtual online tour of the temporary exhibition with commentary, designed for adults, which provides valuable and interesting information about Georgia O'Keeffe (1887- 1986), owing to her first retrospective in Spain. Further information

Georgia O?Keeffe meetings

Female collectors' love of objects by American artist Georgia O'Keeffe is the starting point to explore ? via the Federation of Rural Women's Associations (FADEMUR) different women's groups in rural environments of Spain. These women will let us discover the objects that encapsulate daily beauty and that narrate vital experiences in landscapes.

Further information

The temporary exhibition in depth: Georgia O?Keeffe

Museum Friends can discover the oeuvre of Georgia O'Keeffe privately. An art historian will provide explanations during this group tour at the museum or via a virtual tour on the Teams platform, which will also have commentary by an expert.

Further information 76

Visit to the installation Georgia O?Keeffe: The Faraway

To coincide with the exhibition Georgia O?Keeffe, artist Isabel Marías has created a large installation in the garden of the Palacio de los Duques Hotel, inspired by the personal and aesthetic paradise which O?Keeffe discovered in the landscapes of New Mexico.Georgia O?Keeffe: The Faraway combines orchids, calla lilies, carnations and amaryllis with wood, rocks, sand, clay and many other natural materials; all elements that evoke Georgia O?Keeffe?s paintings. Friends can visit this installation, made in collaboration with Gran Meliá, where the team that runs Festival Flora, which has curated and produced the work, who will explain its design and making. Further information

IThe Faraway installation Isabel Marías Palacio de los Duques. Gran Meliá Hotel

Discover the installation Watch the video 77

Installation details Photos: Laura Martínez Lombardía

Publications

Georgia O?Keeffe Catalogue

Catalogue with essays by Marta Ruiz del Árbol, DidierOttinger, ArielPlotekand Catherine Millet; technical studies by DaleKronkrightand Susana Pérez, Andrés Sánchez Ledesma and MartaPalao, and timeline and fact sheets by Anna Hiddleston- Galloni. Buy

Georgia O?Keeffe

Georgia O?Keeffe Teaching Guide

The Georgia O?Keeffe Teaching Guide, written by educators Eva García and Luz Helena Carvajal, invites you to wander the rooms of the temporary exhibition, and also to walk, to share experiences, travels and in- depth looks into nature, the landscape and readers' most important places, whether they be their homes, their cities or even the museum. Buy

Georgia O?Keeffe Comic

Inspired by the first retrospective in Spain of Georgia O'Keeffe, Valencian illustrator Maria Herreros depicts the life and oeuvre of this American painter, delving into the most intimate aspects of her magnetic personality. Buy

Georgia O?Keeffe

"Georgia O'Keeffe and María Herreros make the perfect team. Let's join them in this history that brings together daring decisions and deep fears, passionate loves and existential crises but, especially, a unique vision of the reality that was captured on canvas for posterity."

Marta Ruiz del Árbol, curator of the Georgia O?Keeffe exhibition

A solas con Georgia O'Keeffe On the occasion of the Georgia O'Keeffe exhibition we invite, in collaboration with Las Rozas Village, professionals from different fields (fashion, architecture, music and performance) to spend some face- to- face time with the works of O'Keeffe that most catch their attention. In this way they invite us to rediscover them from new points of view, based on their personal experience and sensations.

Luis Galliussi Photo: Borja Zausen

With the collaboration of

Video

Georgia O?Keeffe's favourite music Georgia O'Keeffe was a music lover. She played and listened to music (specially classical). Thanks to the list of records found at her home after her death, kept at the Research Center of the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico, we have made a selection offered in a couple of playlists: one with classical music ranging from the Renaissance to the 20 th century and another with Spanish classical music and flamenco found included in the list, probably from her trips to Spain in the 1950 's.

Music on Spotify Beethoven, Schumann, Haydn, Bach, Monteverdi, sacred music, Verdi and Wagner operas. Discover the music that Georgia O'Keeffe listened to.

Fact sheet Practical information Credits Dates, opening hours, ticket prices, audio guide... practical information to prepare for visiting the museum's exhibition.

Fact sheet Title Georgia O?Keeffe Organisers Thyssen- Bornemisza National Museum (Madrid), Centre Pompidou (Paris) and theFondationBeyeler(Riehen/ Basel), in collaboration with the Georgia O?Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe With sponsorship by the Terra Foundation for American Art With the support of JTI Locations and dates Madrid, Thyssen- Bornemisza National Museum, from 20 April to 8 August 20 21. It will then travel to the Centre Pompidou, in Paris, and to the Fondation Beyeler,Riehen/ Basel Curator Marta Ruiz del Árbol, Modern Painting Area of the Thyssen- Bornemisza National Museum Technical curator Clara Marcellán, Modern Painting Area of the Thyssen- BornemiszaNational Museum Number of works 90 Publications Catalogue with essays by Marta Ruiz del Árbol, Didier Ottinger, Ariel Plotekand Catherine Millet; technical studies by DaleKronkrightand Susana Pérez, Andrés Sánchez Ledesma and Marta Palao, and timeline and fact sheets by Anna Hiddleston- Galloni. Teaching Guide, Eva García and Luz Helena Carvajal, from the Education Area of the Thyssen- BornemiszaNational Museum. Comic book by María Herreros, co- published withAstiberri, and digital publication on ISSUU.

Georgia O?Keeffe

Practical information Address Paseo del Prado, 8, 280 14, Madrid.Temporary exhibition rooms, ground floor Opening hours From 20 April to 28 May 20 21: Monday: closed Tuesday to Friday and Sunday: 10 .0 0 am to 7.0 0 pm Saturday: 10 .0 0 am to 9.0 0 pm From 29 May to 8 August 20 21: Monday: closed Tuesday to Saturday: 10 .0 0 am to 9.0 0 pm Sunday: 10 .0 0 am to 7.0 0 pm Ticket prices General: 13.0 0 Reduced: 9.0 0 Group: 11.0 0 18 May, International Museum Day, free entry Tickets subject to time availability and limited spaces to ensure safety during visits Advance ticket sales At ticket offices, the museum website and by ringing 91 791 1370 Audio guide Available in several languages Further information www.museothyssen.org

Credits Editorial coordination Thyssen- Bornemisza National Museum Education Area and Web and New Mediums Department Credits and legal notices © Museo Nacional Thyssen- Bornemisza, Madrid. The list of credits below is for copyright- protected works. To use these images, regardless of the conditions established by theFoundation, you must obtain the authorisation of the artist of the work or the manager of its rights. © for the edition: Thyssen- Bornemisza Collection Foundation, 20 21 © of texts: their authors © of photographs: please see photo credits

Georgia O?Keeffe