There are 13 reasons to visit the Tate Modern Museum of Art in London, U.K. before October 30, 2016. Her name is Georgia O’Keeffe. The biggest and best retrospective of her art in our lifetime is on display there now in thirteen large gallery rooms that span thousands of square feet of museum art space.
According to Cody Hartley, Curator at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, NM, “My overriding point with the Tate Modern exhibition is that anyone interested in O’Keeffe needs to see this show, be it in London, Vienna, or Toronto. The scope of works included forcefully demonstrates the breadth of O’Keeffe’s interests and the remarkable continuity of her creativity over her long career. It’s a rare opportunity to see over 100 remarkable paintings by this pioneer of twentieth-century art.”
1. The exhibit opens with The Early Years and ‘291’. The first gallery room is presented as Alfred Stieglitz would have presented her art work in his studio titled 291 in New York City during 1916-1917. The early period reveals abstraction and her gift as a colorist and watercolor artist.
2. Abstraction And The Senses
This gallery room displays early abstraction including hard edged Cubist like work to the more well-known oil paintings related to organic forms. “Her paintings investigate the relationship of form to music, color, and composition…”
3. O’Keeffe, Stieglitz and Their Circle
4. New York Cityscapes
5. Lake George
6. Flowers and Still Lifes
7. New Mexico: Taos and Alcalde
8. From the Faraway, Nearby: The Skull Paintings
9. Ghost Ranch
10. The Black Place and The White Place
11. The Series: Abiquiu Patios, Pelvis Bones and Cottonwood Trees
12. The Southwest
13. Late Abstractions and Skyscapes
The centerpiece and marketing is centered on the masterpiece by Georgia O’Keeffe, Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1, 1932, which is loaned by Crystal Bridges Museum.
The reviews of this exhibit are outstanding and worth a read:
Another favorite stop in the museum is the gift shop to check out the exhibition catalogue. It is usually written by experts in their field and museum professionals with strong art history backgrounds. My prior blog shared some highlights into the Frank Stella: A Retrospective exhibit catalogue. If you purchase one art catalogue this year, please prioritize this one from the Tate Modern Georgia O’Keeffe retrospective. It is outstanding, and it makes a beautiful and thoughtful Christmas gift for your art friends.
If you want to dig deeper, see the supporting content at the Tate Modern web site also.
As you travel to London by the end of October, whether you are a casual observer of art or a dedicated student studying art, visiting the Tate Modern O’Keeffe retrospective will tantalize your senses on many different levels. It will be presented in thirteen galleries only at the Tate Modern. The next two stops on the exhibit’s tour will have a different format. Catch the next two stops on this tour:
- Bank Austria Kunstforum in Vienna, Austria from December 7, 2016 – March 26, 2017
- The Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, Canada From April 22, 2017 – July 30, 2017
It is well-worth the time to visit this one-time opportunity to see the biggest and best exhibit of her lifetime’s work.
