Lisle - Portrait of an Artist

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PORTRAIT OF AN ARTIST

moved me deeplyI cant remember when a book involved me so totally.

Patricia Bosworth

This OKeeffe will shock as much as amuse, chill as much as inspire.

Christian Science Monitor

Laurie Lisle has given us a mortal Georgia OKeeffe, whose human hunger and frailties, gifts and strengths enabled her to survivetriumphantly a conflicted life.

Eleanor Munro, author of Originals: American Woman Artists

This is a revised edition of a work originally published in 1980 by Seaview Books and in 1981 by Washington Square Press. This revised edition has been published in hardcover by the University of New Mexico.

A Washington Square Press Publication of POCKET BOOKS, a division of Simon & Schuster Inc.

1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

www.SimonandSchuster.com

Copyright 1980, 1986 by Laurie Lisle

Published by arrangement with the author

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

For information address Pocket Books, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

ISBN: 0-671-01666-0

ISBN: 9-781-45162-8-739(eBook)

WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster Inc.

Cover design by Brigid Pearson

Cover photo by Y. Karsh/Woodfin Camp & Associates

The idea for this book had its genesis in 1970 when I went to a retrospective of Georgia OKeeffes paintings at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. There, four floors above the cacophony of Madison Avenue, her images of skulls floating in spacious, serene desert skies as well as blossoms of mysterious depths and brilliant hues spoke strongly to me of another world, bigger and more beautiful than the one around me.

The Whitney had purchased its first OKeeffe in 1932, almost a decade after the artist had come to prominence with the first generation of American modernists, yet I was only vaguely aware that she had been married to the great photographer Alfred Stieglitz, and that in old age she lived on a remote New Mexican ranch. My curiosity was aroused: Who was the little-known creator of these powerful paintings?

When I tried to find out, I was astonished to discover that no book existed to answer my questions. I continued searching and in 1976 visited the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University. I pored over letters that OKeeffe had written as a young woman to her friend Anita Pollitzer and in middle age to New Mexicans Mabel Dodge Luhan and Dorothy Brett. As I read her words, written in an upright calligraphic script composed of distinctive curlicues and wavy flourishes, their intensity seemed to vibrate off the paper and transmit a vigorous jolt the way her paintings did. I realized with growing excitement that her story was not only that of a gifted artist, but also of a forceful American woman with extraordinary qualities of intellect and characterand it was a story that I wanted to tell.

I learned, however, that she had a reputation for being exceedingly reticent. Her desert ranch blends in with the surrounding ocher earth tones, much as her brushstrokes are concealed in the smooth surface of her canvases. Over the years she had rebuffed even the efforts of loyal, fond friends like Anita Pollitzer to write about her. I approached her warily and my contact with her was brief; she took her accustomed position and chose not to participate in my project. But she did say to me, You are welcome to what you find.

With the backing of a publisher, I set out on an odyssey that took me to twenty-four states, dozens of libraries and museums, and resulted in scores of interviews with OKeeffes schoolmates, family, and friends. In her isolated corner of New Mexico I hiked up mesas she had climbed many times to view the majestic valley she called her own. I parked my car on the road she had painted, where it provides an overview of the muddy pink Chama River greening her dramatic dry landscape. I even danced to Latin music with her Spanish- American neighbors in a gym that was OKeeffes gift to the village of Abiquiu.

My portrait of the artistthe evolution of a Wisconsin farmers daughter nicknamed Georgie into the matriarch of modern art known as OKeeffewas written with the hope that others might be moved by the example of her courageous, independent, and successful life. Writing this book has been an engrossing, exciting experience, for despite her elusiveness, Georgia OKeeffe has given us great gifts not only in her paintings but also in the very way she lived her life.

It would have been impossible to have written this book without the generosity of other people. My interest in biography began in childhood, when I voraciously read the pumpkin-colored famous people books for beginning readers, so my first thanks go to my mother, Adeline Congdon, who kept me abundantly supplied with them. I am also indebted to my agent, Sarah Jane Freymann, for her instinctive belief in the book when it was only an idea. My deep appreciation goes to my editor, Sherry Huber, for the many ways she helped bring the book into being, especially for her steady encouragement and enthusiasm as the manuscript took shape. My special thanks to Albert Litewka for his sensitive readings and reactions to the earliest drafts.

More than a hundred people who crossed OKeeffes path in life graciously and freely shared their memories and insights with me. I would like to mention them all, but their numbers preclude that. Moreover, some of the most significant and discerning contributors have asked me not to reveal their names, so my private thanks to them must suffice. Each persons recollections have helped make the story of Georgia OKeeffe more complete, and to each one, named and unnamed, I give my heartfelt thanks.

Among those whom I am pleased to be able to thank publicly, a few stand out vividly. Susan Wilson of Virginia, who went to boarding school with OKeeffe, displayed an extraordinary memory the afternoon we spoke. Although she was a semi-invalid, she touchingly confessed an urge to hitch a ride with me out West in order to see her girlfriend once again. In north Texas, I remember with affection Emma Jean Smith, who taught OKeeffe at West Texas State Normal College, as well as the charming Mattie Mack, one of OKeeffes former students.

In San Francisco I interviewed Blanche Matthias, born the same year as OKeeffe and her friend since the early twenties. Mrs. Matthiass mind was as perceptive as ever, but as she sat sightless in a pink bathrobe and dark glasses she was tragically no longer able to see the panoramic view from her Nob Hill apartment.

Among my numerous interviews in New Mexico, the most memorable was with Dorothy Brett. Bretts observant brown eyes were clouded by age, but her clipped British words remained warm and humorous as she remembered, then did not remember. When I reminded her that OKeeffe was almost ninety (at the time), Brettfour years older than her friend exclaimed: Ninety! Oh, how horrible for her.... Its very unnecessary the way people die, isnt it? Brett was to die a few weeks afterwards.