MoMA to exhibit rarely seen works by Georgia O'Keeffe

Georgia O'Keeffe one of the most important artists of the 20th century, she created some of the most emblematic paintings. Now the Museum of Modern Art in New York will open a new exhibition of his drawings. “Georgia O'Keeffe: To See Takes Time” will bring together more than 120 rarely seen works on paper that demonstrate how the artist used charcoal, watercolor, pastel and graphite to revisit in organic forms. It will be the museum's first show to explore this process by O'Keeffe and the first exhibition dedicated to the artist at MoMA since 1946. “O'Keeffe is a well-loved and not often understood artist. I included a charcoal drawing of O'Keeffe's in our [2020] show 'Degree Zero,' and people were shocked to learn it was hers. It did not correspond to their expectation of this artist's work”, said Samantha Friedman, curator of the exhibition, to ARTnews.

Georgia O'Keeffe, the painter of lush close-up flowers and rugged mountains, began her career drawing in charcoal. In 1915, while working as an art teacher, she began to create drawings on several sheets of paper. The result suggested ripples of water, smoke or primordial soup, which Georgia O'Keeffe dubbed the series “Specials”. During the 1930s, O'Keeffe became known for her paintings of the natural world, most of which capture static extremes such as blooming flowers or weather-bleached animal skulls. The transition from paper to canvas did not happen in an instant, and the artist described the joyful “imprudence” of paper in relation to canvas, where consequences carry weight. Undoubtedly, paper was an essential means for developing his motifs and the essence of his themes.
“Georgia O'Keeffe: To See Takes Time” is scheduled to run from April 9 to August 12, 2023, at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.