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Wednesday, April 23, 2025

Kathy Presents Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz

Jacquie’s Email Hello Literary Ladies! Happy Easter, to those who are celebrating, and happy gorgeous it’s-finally-spring to you all!
    It’s field trip time again as the next meeting of the Literature Club of Hastings-on-Hudson will be held on Wednesday, April 23rd at Laura’s beautiful Ossining aerie. We will begin with lunch and a view at noon, and then Joanna will ring the bell at 1 PM to begin our meeting. Rumor has it we might even learn the results of our vote for next year's topic!
    Kathy will then present “Letters of Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz,” which is sure to enthrall. Members, please let our hostess know if you will not be able to attend, and associate members, please let her know if you will. 
     As parking is tight, car-pooling is recommended. Joanna still has one empty space in her car and Sharon has two spots, “if people don't mind two in the back.”
    I've also included the link to our blog, so wonderfully kept up by our new recording secretary, Frances. I, for one, am most thankful for this wonderful record of our meetings. It's a rabbit hole I go down happily and often.
    I look forward to being with many of you on Wednesday and to bask in the company of Georgia OʼKeeffe and Alfred Stieglitz. It looks like the weather will be quite fine to do just that! x Jacquie

Carla’s Minutes Our caravans to the north country arrived safely at Laura’s lovely Ossining aerie where 10 of us were treated to a bird’s eye view? Eye view of birds? and a delicious picnic lunch on the terrace.
    
Georgia O'Keeffe painting

During the business part of our meeting, the topic for 2025-2026 was announced: “Classics that We Haven’t Read (or Humiliation) or Books from Our High School Years. Minutes of the last meeting were read. While new Recording Secretary, Frances Greenberg, wasn’t there in person, her minutes received applause and laughs—a fine beginning!
    On to the presentation, with Kathy telling us all about artist Georgia O’Keeffe and photographer Alfred Stieglitz, accompanied by visuals of their works. She introduced them as a “boy meets girl” story, except that it was the girl’s work at first. After her friend had shared some of O’Keeffe’s charcoal and pastel sketches with Stieglitz, the 23-year-old art student wrote to him. Her inquiry about her work was ingenuous and frank and his reply very positive—“surprise and joy” was his reaction. A promising beginning to what would become a long and complicated relationship.
    O’Keeffe was a Wisconsin-ite born in 1887 (d. 1986) to a large farming/business family. Talented at art, she took lessons starting at age eleven and won high praise and honors. Her parents both died in 1915, and she struggled to support herself, with some help and encouragement from her mother’s sisters. She attended classes at SAIC and the Arts Students League in NYC. O’Keefe became a teacher in 1911, taking courses at Columbia Teachers’ College, then taught in South Carolina, West Texas and New Mexico (1916,]
    
Alfred Stieglitz photo

Stieglitz was born 1864 (d.1946) in New Jersey into a German-Jewish family, the oldest of six children. After attending technical schools in Berlin, 1882‐1890, he became interested in the new photography. Returning to the U.S., he opened a gallery at 291 Fifth Avenue in 1892, which is where O’Keeffe’s work was first displayed—without her permission! While she was very pleased that Steichen liked her work, she was “appalled” at having her feelings exposed publicly. Her protestations were met with his reply that he had a “higher authority” to share her work. His 1907 photograph “Steerage” is considered a signature work, representing his first “modernist photograph.”
    Although Stieglitz had been married and had a daughter, O’Keeffe was attracted by his “energy and soul,” his good looks and his value of life. The correspondence between them over a two-year period reflected her view of “the terrible fineness and intensity of him” and his “value of life”. His was a combative personality. He believed that women had “spiritual superiority” but “intellectual inferiority.” After two years of correspondence, they moved in together, sharing work and living space (1918-1928). Kathy showed images of Stieglitz’s cloud photos and O’Keeffe’s abstract work of New Mexico from that period. She was his object of both adoration and control, noted Kathy.
    In 1905, the gallery (known as 291) was recognized for its role in legitimizing photography as a fine art, for bringing attention to unknown and talented photographers, and for introducing new artists including Matisse, Rousseau, Cezanne, Picasso. A 1921 exhibit of Stieglitz’s work was a great success. His work, which included innovative nude photos of O’Keeffe and drew acclaim for his “texture and shading” and notice of a “cult of personality.” It also brought comments of sensationalism. For O’Keeffe, it resulted in her distancing herself from critics and the public.
    Over their lifetime, they exchanged more than 5,000 letters, a sampling of which we read. Indeed, through the letters they started to fall in love before they had even met. O’Keeffe questioned whether using similar words really reflected similar feelings, experiences. Their letters were often rapturous and extravagant in mutual admiration. But life was to be lived on his terms. O’Keeffe made trips on her own, to Boston and to Maine, realizing she enjoyed her own company. They married in 1924, he not wanting children—she seeking new direction in art, both wanting “total devotion.”
    Their relationship changed in 1929 when Stieglitz began an adulterous affair with 21-year-old Dorothy Norman. O’Keeffe left for a 4 month stay in New Mexico which left Stieglitz “unhinged.” He wrote to her from Lake George, a family vacation home, decrying the situation, blaming himself for robbing her of her faith, but encouraging her to discover new things for herself. They did get back together but he had emotionally destroyed her. An incident involving murals she was to do for Radio City Music Hall ended badly and contributed to her hospitalization 1931-33.
    A new relationship developed with Jean King who became her lover, but Stieglitz was still in the picture. He was happy for her successes, including a show at the Museum of Modern Art. Deep and strong forces kept them together, concluded Kathy.

Respectfully submitted,
Carla Potash, Secretary for the day

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