Learning More about Georgia O'Keefe

Ram's Head, White Hollyhock-Hills encapsulates O'Keefe's art and life

Yesterday we went to the Brooklyn Museum to see Georgia O'Keefe: Living Modern that ends July 23. She is an artist I have admired for a long time and many years ago copied her paintings in pastel. She encouraged me to be fearless, using big strokes, and express myself through vibrant colours.

Four cream-coloured outfits O'Keefe made early in her life

We caught the museum's 1pm tour through the exhibit and the docent was very knowledgeable about O'Keefe and picked certain pieces to show how the curators presented the show.

It wasn't just about O'Keefe's paintings, but also her clothing, a few miscellaneous things from her home and many photographs of her in the clothing, hats and shoes that were also exhibited.

She was born in Wisconsin in 1887 and at a young age showed a talent for art. The family moved to Virginia and when she was a teenager studied at the School of Art Institute of Chicago.

Later she taught art and as our guide explained, after work she would work on her own art, creating abstract watercolours. A friend showed them to Alfred Stieglitz, a well known photographer and art dealer in New York who was impressed by such modern art by a female artist.

This painting was first shown at the museum

He sold some of her pieces -- over US$1,000 in the late 1920s which was a lot of money in those days -- and eventually the two fell in love. Stieglitz was married at the time with a daughter, and was 23 years older than O'Keefe, but he divorced and married O'Keefe.

They lived in Manhattan and one of the paintings shown in the exhibition was of the New York skyline -- something that was usually depicted by men and not women. But O'Keefe was keen to show that she too could do it too -- and just as well. Not only did she paint the skyscrapers, but also in pink, and with three flowers to give them a feminine touch.

At the time she was known for her flower paintings. Women usually painted flowers, but they were small most of the time. O'Keefe felt if she painted flowers really small, no one would notice, so why not big too, like skyscrapers?

She also insisted there wasn't any deeper meanings behind the some 200 flower paintings she made, as some tried to insinuate there were sexual meanings behind the works.

Pink skyscrapers and flowers

One of the paintings on show is called Black Pansy & Forget-Me-Nots painted in 1926 and our guide explained it was first shown in a solo exhibition O'Keefe had in the Brooklyn Museum in 1927.

At the show, one of her friends bought the painting and O'Keefe managed to persuade that person to donate it to the museum afterwards. O'Keefe also gave some of her works during her lifetime to the museum, and after her death.

Our guide pointed out that many of O'Keefe's clothes were monochromatic -- she didn't want to have to worry about colour in her wardrobe when she would rather focus on the colours of her canvas.

Featured in the exhibition are several items of clothing, cream-coloured dresses she made and they are very delicate and reveal her skill in dressmaking. There are also a trio of white blouses, one of which shows very fine tailoring and could very easily be worn today.

She also had a penchant for black with a bit of white contrasting, be it from the collar of a shirt or the cuffs of shirts sticking out from black blazers. Later on she was obsessed about the V-shape and many dresses and jackets had this shape, whether the neckline or pattern on dresses.

One of the delicate blouses O'Keefe made

As more of her work was sold, she and Stieglitz would move to higher floors in the hotel apartment building they lived in. And this wealth would also help O'Keefe become even more independent, buying a car and buying a home and then another one in New Mexico.

She first went there in 1929 thanks to the patronage of an heiress, and O'Keefe immediately fell in love with the place and kept going back there every year until she finally settled there.

In New Mexico she stopped wearing suits and adopted denim as her fabric of choice, wearing shirts, jeans and even fashioned a Chinese-style dress out of the blue cotton.

However, after O'Keefe's first visit to New Mexico for six months, she came back to New York to find Stieglitz was having an affair with another woman; O'Keefe was devastated and even suffered a nervous breakdown and was hospitalized in 1933, mostly because her husband was continuing with the affair.

O'Keefe then finally moved to New Mexico in 1940, purchasing a home there, but then Stieglitz fell ill in 1946 with cerebral thrombosis and she flew back immediately to tend to him until he died in July that year.

A Chinese-style outfit she had made in HK

It took her three years to finally finish dealing with his estate before she permanently moved to New Mexico in 1949. There she was obsessed with painting a mountain called Cerro Pedernal.

One of her works, Ram's Head, White Hollyhock-Hills painted in 1935 encapsulates O'Keefe with the animal skull, a flower and her favourite mountain.

Interestingly there are two outfits shown that have a Hong Kong connection. In 1959 and 1960 she traveled there and got some outfits made, one very east-meets-west, the other looking like a very masculine Chinese robe.

In 1972 she lost most of her eyesight due to macular degeneration and couldn't paint anymore, though photographers would make pilgrimages to New Mexico to take pictures of her. The show has portraits of her by Yousuf Karsh, Bruce Weber, Ansel Adams and Todd Webb.

Andy Warhol also wanted a piece of her and invited her to come to New York to The Factory where he made a silkscreen of her in the same colour as the adobe home she lived in, and was sprinkled with diamond dust. Wonder what she thought of that.

A portrait of O'Keefe in a kimono by Bruce Weber

O'Keefe died in 1986, just shy of her 99th birthday. Art historians like to say she was the first American contemporary artist. Apparently she bequeathed all her things to a very young assistant called Juan Hamilton and her siblings went to court to fight for estate. In the end it was settled out of court.

Learned so much about this remarkable woman and feel inspired by her artistry in art and in life.

Georgia O'Keefe: Living Modern

Until July 23, 2017

Brooklyn Museum

200 Eastern Parkway

Brooklyn

www.brooklynmuseum.org

Lessons in Kinky Boots

Lots of high energy in the Tony-award winning musical Kinky Boots

One of the Broadway shows we saw was Kinky Boots, the Tony-award winning show featuring words and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper and book by Harvey Fierstein.

Rock star Brendon Urie plays Charlie Price

The musical is based on a 2005 British film called Kinky Boots that was inspired by true events. In the show, Charlie Price is the fourth generation of a shoe-making business but needs to figure out how to keep the company from going bankrupt and has an encounter with a drag queen...

Brendon Urie plays Charlie, and when he first appeared on stage, there were hysterical screams from young women in the audience because he's the frontman for the rock band Panic!

Having someone famous -- and easy on the eyes -- helps sell tickets, and in this case Urie plays the part well.

However his co-star J. Harrison Ghee as Lola was electrifying. He can not only sing his heart out, but has hilarious lines he delivers with pizazz and can dance in heels. He and the other drag queens do some really cool moves... talk about making drag queens more mainstream than ever in a Tony-award winning musical!

Also fantastic is the character Nicola played by Taylor Louderman, who really made the audience laugh with her lines and body language.

J. Harrison Ghee is amazing as drag queen Lola

The storyline is well thought out and focused on the similarities of the two characters even though they have such different backgrounds. It makes you realize how each had to have courage to carry on despite the risks stacked against them.

Nevertheless, overall the show was very high energy and after the show was over, many people wanted to dance their way out of the theatre.

Lots of fun!

Kinky Boots

Al Hirschfeld Theatre

302 West 45th Avenue

New York

kinkybootsthemusical.com

Gorgeous Garden at Wave Hill

Paths lead to several gardens and villas on the property

My July 4 afternoon was spent at Wave Hill, an idyllic estate that's not too difficult to get to and the effort made to get there is more than handsomely rewarded.

There are various lilies grown in the gardens like these

We took the 1 train all the way to 242nd Street station (the terminus) and after we exited the train, headed to the nearby Burger King, where a white van with the words "Wave Hill" on it, picked us up and a short five-minute ride later we had arrived.

Wave Hill was originally a country home in 1843 and in 1903, it was purchased by George W. Perkins, a partner of J.P. Morgan. He added it to his collection of properties in the area, which included the next door villa that is now called Glyndor Gallery.

In 1960 the Perkins-Freeman family deeded Wave Hill to the City of New York, and it was later formed into a public garden that is now one of 33 New York City-owned cultural institutions.

A greenhouse houses many succulents and cacti

Once you arrive, you can see a vast expanse of grass, several different gardens, a green house and a magnificent view of the Hudson River with New Jersey on the other side.

We enjoyed wandering around and admiring the various flora, particularly the lilies of various colours, and small pools with lily pads (just the Japanese koi were missing). There were green houses filled with cacti and succulents, another with bonsai trees, and hanging plants.

The grassy area was so perfect for a picnic spot -- but that's what you can't do at Wave Hill -- unless you bring food and eat it at a designated picnic table that's no where near the nice view of the Hudson River.

Very pretty man-made pond that's missing some carp

You also can't have birthday parties there, smoke or play games and do things like rollerblade, throw frisbees or ride a scooter. While we've heard people hold weddings here, but then visitors would also be inadvertently walking in on your ceremony...

Nevertheless, the cafe on the property serves some pretty decent food like salads, gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches, smashed avocado on toast, and some delicious cherry pie.

One of the villas, the aforementioned Glyndor Gallery is a nice space for exhibitions of local artists, though we had a better appreciation for the home with its ornate interior design including fireplaces and cornices.

The prettiest avocado on toast

The almost three-hour visit was memorable and pleasant  -- and we all managed to get back in the van that took another route to get us back to the subway station.

Wave Hill

675 West 252nd Street

Bronx, NY
10471-2899
(718) 549 3200

www.wavehill.org

Picture of the Day: Fearless Girl

The defiance of Fearless Girl stares down Charging Bull

Today we went downtown to the financial district to look at the latest artistic addition to the area.

Charging Bull has been there for many years, signifying Wall Street with its, well, bullish attitude towards the markets.

It's a favourite statue for many tourists to take pictures of, particularly mainland Chinese, who see the bull at the epitome of American capitalism and the hopes of rubbing its nose will bring them good luck.

Charging Bull is a favourite with tourists visiting Wall Street

But in March, just before International Women's Day, the statue of a little girl was deliberately placed in front of the bull by State Street Global Advisors, an investment-service company to make a statement about gender diversity and to send a message to finance companies to increase the number of women on their corporate boards.

The 4-ft statue is a fantastic counterpoint to the masculine animal, but for Arturo di Modica, the Italian artist behind Charging Bull, he feels the meaning behind his piece has changed because of Fearless Girl and wants to sue State Street for not conferring with him earlier.

He felt the new addition changed his piece from having a meaning of "strength" and "power" to being a threat.

Maybe we are biased, but we love Fearless Girl. We need more of them to change people's perceptions of women and maybe finally have equity pay as well as equal treatment, and standing in front of a charging bull is a strong, determined start.