When the Nevada Museum of Art announced this exhibit, I knew I couldn't miss it.

"Expand your understanding of renowned modernist artist Georgia O'Keeffe in the context of her self-crafted public persona -- including her clothing and the way she posed for the camera. Living Modern focuses on O'Keeffe's wardrobe, shown for the first time alongside key paintings and photographs. It confirms and explores her determination to control how the world understood her identity and artistic values."
The exhibition is organized in sections that began with her early years, when O’Keeffe crafted a signature style of dress that dispensed with ornamentation. Here were handmade dresses, by the artist herself. The details were absolutely awe-inspiring. We had no idea this talented painter was a seamstress (until she made enough money to pay for clothes to be made for her).


Georgia made this beautiful evening coat in the late 20s, following the current craze of art dresses. It was spectacular to see the details up close.
Her clothing and art seemed to influence each other.
The delicateness and intricate detail of her blouse must be seen in person to be fully appreciated.
O'Keeffe's history is really told in her fashion styles, from her years in New York, in the 1920s and 1930s, when a black-and-white palette dominated much of her art and dress, to her later years in New Mexico, where her art and clothing changed in response to the surrounding colors of the Southwestern landscape.

The most magical component of this exhibit was seeing the item of clothing in person and then the image of Georgia wearing it!



I loved discovering this brass pin made by Alexander Calder, the artist better known for his abstract mobiles (we learned of him while living in Spoleto, Italy). Calder manipulated a single strip of metal into a sculptural doodle: a spiral that jags outward, zigzags, and ends in an elegant little curl. “OK,” it says. Calder made the brooch for O’Keeffe around 1938, and by the 1970s it was core to her look. In black-and-white photos by Ansel Adams and Bruce Weber, O’Keeffe wears the pin vertically on a black kimono and at the throat of a white blouse, making her initials mysterious. It was like a scavenger hunt, searching for it in various photos throughout this section of the exhibit.
I loved this polaroid by Georgia, taken in 1964, of Glen Canyon. She used it to paint the image below.

"In addition to selected paintings and items of clothing, the exhibition presents photographs of O’Keeffe and her homes by Alfred Stieglitz, Ansel Adams, Philippe Halsman, Yousuf Karsh, Cecil Beaton, Andy Warhol, Bruce Weber, Todd Webb, and others." This image captivated me because of the whimsy it portrayed, one of only a couple where it seemed Georgia let her guard down- shes peeking through swiss cheese. Wild.
Interestingly in 1979, the meeting of Pop Art icon Andy Warhol and Georgia O’Keeffe resulted in the Warhol production of a highly coveted series of diamond dust prints. At this point in time, when Georgia and Andy agreed to sit for one another, Ms. O’Keeffe had pretty much ceased her own creations, as her diminished eyesight had worsened and she was in her early nineties at the time. For Andy Warhol, despite meeting being a larger than life celebrity in 1979 and regularly meeting other celebrities, the opportunity to meet with Georgia O’Keeffe was still a big deal – as the two of them had solidified their positions at the top of the list of important American artists of the 20th century. We all agreed this was a pretty amazing pairing of iconic talents.
We concluded with Georgia O’Keeffe: The Faraway Nearby from the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico. The beauty and elegance of Georgia O’Keeffe’s New Mexico paintings were prompted by the intimacy of her experience with the Southwest’s natural forms. She made repeated camping trips to draw and paint at three extraordinary sites in the Southwest: Glen Canyon, Utah, and places in New Mexico that she referred to as “The White Place” and “The Black Place.” This exhibition presented a selection of fifty objects of camping gear belonging to O’Keeffe—everything from her flashlight to her Stanley thermos. Between 1936 and 1949, the artist returned to these sites many times to create more than a dozen major works inspired by the astonishing landscape, isolated far off the road and away from all civilization. AND we got to see all of her actual camping supplies. So very, very cool.

The Nevada Museum Art is a treasure and this O'Keeffe exhibit is truly worth discovering. Wow.