9781422276471

G eorgia O 'K eeffe AN ETERNAL SPIRIT

O’Keeffe’s work that he exhibited her drawings at 291 without having first received her permission. During a visit to New York, she descended on the gallery in anger and demanded that her “private” drawings be returned, but Stieglitz persuaded her to allow the exhibit to remain standing. Eventually, Stieglitz also persuaded O’Keeffe to move to New York, and years later they married. For the rest of his life he continued to show her work to a wide variety of critical acclaim in his New York galleries. After 291 closed, Stieglitz promoted her paintings along with contemporary European art at the Intimate Gallery. O’Keeffe was one of his special group of five American artists, which also included John Marin, Marsden Hartley, Arthur Dove, and Charles Demuth. After 1930 Stieglitz opened yet another popular gallery, An American Place, where he continued to hold annual exhibits of O’Keeffe’s art. Rio Grande River—The Gorge M yron W ood , 1979–1981; photograph. Myron Wood Photographic Collection, The Pikes Peak Library District, Colorado Springs, Colorado.

O’Keeffe and Stieglitz at An American Place in the 1940s U nknow photographer . The Bettmann Archive Inc., New York. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s Stieglitz refused to travel to the southwest. He was busy running his gallery and would only spend his summers in his beloved Lake George.

This dramatic gorge is five miles (eight kilometers) southwest of Taos, part of the stark landscape that O’Keeffe explored on her first trip to New Mexico.

10