“Six,” the musical, in Chicago
Chicago beckoned and, more specifically, the musical “Six” and the Georgia O’Keefe exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago.
I thoroughly enjoyed “Six,” the musical, which filled me in on the six wives of Henry VIII. I’m going to have to look up more about these six women, but the cheeky presentation with fantastic costumes, great songs and wonderful singing was all I had hoped it would be. One of my favorite exchanges came when one wife says, “What is more painful than a broken heart?” And Anne Boleyn sidles up to her and answers, “A severed head.” Two of Henry’s ex-es were de-capitated, as you may remember, but this Cliff’s Notes version of history focuses more on clever singing, costuming and dancing and less on a prose historical recitation of Henry’s marital woes. Since pictures within the auditorium (the Nederlander, formerly the Oriental Theater) are strictly forbidden, the picture of the playbook cover and the crowd outside will have to suffice.
After the play—which ended up costing me dearly, especially for parking at $67.50 for 24 hours, when I only needed 2 hours—I walked across the street to Macy’s and enjoyed their chicken pot pie in the Walnut Room while doing a bit of shopping.
Chicago
Chicago
Outside the Nederlander Theater before the matinee showing of “Six” on June 5, 2024.
The next trip was on foot to the Art Institute of Chicago, which I have been a member of since about 2003. Thursday afternoons are free after 5 p.m., but I needed to re-up my membership, anyway, and strolled through the Georgia O’Keeffe exhibit.
I have to admit that all I knew about Georgia O’Keeffe was that she was a female artist associated with painting close-up pictures of flowers and the American Southwest. I knew little about her other than that, so I sat at a table and read a children’s book about her life, which began in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, on November 15, 1887. O’Keefe is considered the “Mother of American Modernism” and died on March 6, 1986 at the age of 98.
One fact that was not in the small children’s book was that her painting Jimson Weed/White Flower #1 was purchased for $44,405,000 in 1932. This was a record amount for a painting by a female American painter. Someone really liked her close-up pictures of flowers. Those close-ups of flowers created controversy when Okeeffe’s husband (Alfred Stieglitz), who was a world class photographer, published some racy photos of O’Keeffe, thereby fueling the suggestion that the floral pictures she painted actually represented female genitalia (she denied this.)
A salient fact in exhibiting O’Keeffe’s work in Chicago is that, after graduating from high school in Madison, Wisconsin, with time also spent in Williamsburg, Virginia where her family had moved in 1902, she studied in Chicago at the School of the Art Institute until 1920. (Georgia was the second of 7 children and had 3 sisters—Ida, Anita and Claudia— and 3 brothers.)
George O’Keeffe painting of NYC skyscrapers
Georgia’s career got off to a faster start when Alfred Stieglitz, who owned an art gallery, decided to champion her work and put on an exhibit of her work. That exhibit took place in 1917, although the children’s biography I was reading suggested that they did not, initially, hit it off personally. By 1924 that had changed, as Alfred, who was married, dumped his wife to marry Georgia on December 11th of 1924. They would live on the 30th floor of a hotel in New York City and Georgia would paint many pictures of the East River that was visible from their apartment and, also, would put her impressions of the New York City skyscraper environment on canvas.
However, in 1929 she began spending time in New Mexico, going back and forth to New York City, while Alfred took up with a younger model. He was old at the time and the couple did not divorce, with Alfred dying in 1946. Alfred was deeply jealous of Georgia during their marriage; his own field was photography, which he felt should be just as important in the art world as painting. Although the couple stuck it out and did not divorce, Alfred is often described as “abusive.”
Georgia O’Keeffe Southwest painting
Following Alfred’s death Georgia moved to New Mexico permanently in 1949, staying there for 40 years and spending time at what was called Ghost Ranch in Abiquia. She ended up, ultimately, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her most famous works, therefore, center on the American Southwest but this exhibit contains many pictures of New York and New York City, a sub-set of her output.
Georgia and Alfred did not divorce and she did stay with him till the end of his life, but, like so many other widows, she lived to the ripe old age of 98, having been widowed at age 59. So, for 39 years Georgia was making art that you can see on exhibit now at the Chicago Art Institute.
“Georgia O’Keeffe: ‘My New Yorks’” — the subtitle borrowing a phrase the artist coined for these urban works — offers the first major look at this subset of her abundant output. It opens June 2 and runs through Sept. 22nd.
Georgia O’Keeffe skull painting
Spectators at the Chicago Art Institute on June 6, 2024.
Spectators at the Chicago Art Institute Georgia O’Keeffe exhibit on June 6, 2024.
Georgia O’Keeffe painting at the Chicago Art Institute on June 6, 2024.
Georgia O’Keeffe painting of the East River from the 30th floor of her New York City apartment.
This painting represents the view of New York City’s East River from the 30th floor of the hotel where Georgia and Alfred Stieglitz lived.
FAMOUS GEORGIA O’KEEFFE QUOTES:
“I’ve been absolutely terrified every moment of my life—and I’ve never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do.” “To create one’s world in any of the arts takes courage.” “You get whatever accomplishment you are willing to declare.”
“Interest is the most important thing in life; happiness is temporary, but interest is continuous.” •
“To create one’s own world, in any of the arts, takes courage.” • “Singing has always seemed to me the most perfect means of expression. It is so spontaneous. And after singing, I think the violin.”
