Love letters, spanning more than 30 years, between Georgia O’Keeffe & Alfred Stieglitz, is the subject of Together & Apart, a thought-provoking exhibition by abstract and experimental artist Grace Howl, running through January 13, 2017 at Alfstad & Contemporary in Sarasota, Florida.
Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz were two very important 20th century artists. Each created their own unique perspective on life, as a result changing the way we view and relate to art and photography today. Stieglitz as a publisher, renowned photographer and champion of Modern Art, advocated and succeeded in getting photography accepted as “art” in 1924. O’Keeffe was a teacher, feminist and first female American Abstract Artist who changed the way we view art, by the way she looked at art and the way she made her art. O’Keeffe married Stieglitz in 1924, but five years later she became restless and moved to New Mexico. She liked spending time alone. Over the years she developed a sense of adventure, traveling to Europe and throughout the United States.
Together & Apart: The Love Letters of Georgia O’Keeffe & Alfred Stieglitz showcases 2,500 letters hand-picked by Howl from more than 25,000 pieces of correspondence at the Yale University Library. From 1915 to 1946, O’Keeffe and Stieglitz wrote one another – sometimes two and three times a day. The correspondence tracks their relationship from acquaintances to admirers to lovers to man and wife – often living apart.
“In her exhibition, Grace has created an imaginative environment that enables the viewer to literally walk into the letters, read them and experience the thoughts and feelings, intimately and personally,” says director Sam Alfstad.
“For this project, I immersed myself in their lives,” says Howl. “When they met in 1915, Stieglitz was 52 and famous – an internationally acclaimed photographer, with an avant-garde gallery in Manhattan. O’Keeffe was 28 and unknown. Her letters drew me into her life. She was a feminist with a strong character and the determination to do things outside of the norm, ahead of her time. She was a fascinating woman.”
Each had distinctive writing styles. Stieglitz wrote in thick, slanting, black lines and O’Keeffe used sweeping squiggles and curlicues. While researching their letters, Howl noticed that many were written or read while Stieglitz and O’Keeffe were in their respective bedrooms, separated by thousands of miles.
“In one of my favorite O’Keeffe letters, she wrote to Stieglitz explaining how difficult it was to paint in the New Mexico sun without the comfort of shade,” says Howl. “It seems male Indians sat under the trees during the hot hours of the day and, as a woman, it wasn’t her place to interrupt them.”
The exhibition features three main components: a ceiling-to-floor silo of letters representing the three decades of their correspondence, a section devoted to “291,” the 5th Avenue gallery owned by Stieglitz that became the first venue in America to show the works of Picasso, Rodin, Matisse and O’Keeffe, and a 20-by-20-foot installation with two adjacent bedrooms. Stieglitz’s side represents Oaklawn, his family’s estate in Lake George, New York, O’Keeffe’s side, her room in Ghost Ranch, New Mexico. Together & Apart brings the ideas and emotions of these two pioneers of modern American art vividly alive.
“I also created a space as a homage to Stieglitz’s ‘291’ and ‘An American Place’ galleries,” says Howl. “’291’ is where Stieglitz first showed O’Keeffe’s art to the world as well as many other very famous artists, including Picasso, Rodin, Kandinsky, Matisse and many more. “An American Place” showed O’Keeffe’s first one-woman show. Additional correspondence in this area includes one letter to O’Keeffe indicating where her art was hung amongst other famous artists; and letters to Rodin and Apollinaire, Steichen and more. My goal with the installation-exhibit was to create a completely immersive experience allowing viewers to peak into what could be O’Keeffe and Stieglitz intimate lives and most importantly view, read and ponder a large collection of their Love Letters – 25,000 pieces of correspondence sent between them from 1915 – 1946. The letters literally cover the walls and hang in multiple layers out from the walls and from the ceiling. The crowning achievement is a floor to ceiling 16 foot chandelier about 8 feet in diameter composed of three layers deep of letters in the center of the room where visitors can literally ‘walk thru’ the letters and envelopes.”
Together & Apart, The Love Letters of Georgia O’Keeffe & Alfred Stieglitz
Through January 13, 2017
Alfstad & Contemporary Art
1235 15th Street
Sarasota, FL 34236
USA
