Anyone who has ever picked up a book on art (or calendar, poster, or tote bag) has seen one of Georgia O'Keffe's paintings. From the moment her work rocked the Modern Art scene nearly 100 years ago, she has remained one of the most iconic artists of all time. "Her lush yet spare paintings of the New Mexico desert, often featuring bleached skulls and parched, scrubby trees, remain some of the most famous of the 20th century," wrote Kathryn Hughes in the Telegraph.
Those familiar with the history of Modern Art, often trace it back to Alfred Steglitz, art entrepreneur and self-appointed leader of the American avant-garde. Steglitz was famous not only for launching the careers of Modern painters, including O'Keefe, but he was also a celebrated photographer. He was the guru of the post-WWI search for a new, Modern sensibility. The young, aspiring photographers who came to him for advise, portfolio reviews, and general inspiration, would themselves become icons: Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Paul Strand.
In 1918, Steglitz was a married man, but he'd taken Georgia O'Keffee under his wing. He not only represented her paintings, he provided O'Keeffe with an income, found her a flat and started taking photographs of her. Shocking then, and perhaps just as shocking now: they offer an intimate, up-close look at the hands, breasts, and pubic hair of the young O'Keeffe.
The pictures, if not in the sepia tones of a century ago, could be like any candid snapshots of a lover today. They clearly evoke the direct gaze of a lover's eyes on a lover's body. Not breasts for the sake of beauty, but breasts that call out to be caressed, kissed. A triangle of curls that provokes thoughts of parting the soft thighs, and opening the closed legs to allow the viewer's eyes, and maybe hands, to explore deeper.
However, According to
Georgia O'Keeffe and the Camera: The Art of Identity, by Susan Danly, the images are not as spontaneous as they appear. In the book, O'Keeffe reveals that Stieglitz made her pose for hours until he got the shot he wanted, regardless of her urge to scratch or blink.
Perhaps this is not as shocking, given the masterful craftsman/salesman of Stieglitz, artist and entrepreneur--one of the first, and maybe even greatest, ad men. Creating not just just an image, but a brand. It was, perhaps, the very origins of celebrity that is so common today.
Clearly both Stieglitz and O'Keeffe were creative geniuses, masters of controlling images and manipulating percpetion. And yet still, despite the calculations that no doubt went on, I have to think that ultimately they were, back in 1918, two humans, of the flesh, who weren't immune to the lust and passion of any other lovers. And that maybe, in these images really are true and pure sexual attraction.
I mean really, Georgia had a pretty smokin body, and some really rocking boobs.
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