O'Keeffe, Georgia | Some Memories of Drawing, O'Keeffe's great American livre d'artiste

O'Keeffe, Georgia

Some Memories of Drawing. New York: Atlantis Editions, 1974

Unbound as issued (210 x 152 mm). Text booklet (sewn) containing half-title, title, introduction, "Epigraph" and introduction by the artist, colophon on separate bifolium, 21 very fine 300-line offset lithographs of drawings (negatives by Richard Benson) on Arches Silkscreen by Meriden Gravure, each in a bifolium folder, most with commentary by O'Keeffe on the first leaf, booklet and folders of pale green Charter Oak paper, Centaur and Arrighi type, designed and printed by Leonard Baskin; occasional creasing and offsetting, 4 plates tipped onto stiff paper, adhesive spots showing through. Publisher's folding box, printed paper label to spine; very lightly soiled. 

Copy number 22 of 100 copies for sale, signed by O'Keeffe and Leonard Baskin on the colophon.

Some Memories of Drawings is unique in that O'Keeffe not only wrote commentary on the drawings, but was also an active participant in the alterations of the plates. As editor Doris Bry writes in the notes for the trade edition, "It seems of interest to set down some information which would otherwise be lost about Georgia O'Keeffe's participation in the reproductions I have published of her drawings, especially since a number of these plates do not correspond to the original works of art as they now appear. What might seem to be liberties, had I as publisher undertaken them, were changes made by O'Keeffe because for her they enhanced the relationship between the original drawing and the printed reproduction. Only the artist herself could have sanctioned such bold changes in composition, in scale, and in tonality."

Some Memories of Drawings is a great American livre d'artiste and a very revealing look into how O'Keeffe perceived her work over the years. A good many of these drawings were executed between 1916 and 1919 and were first exhibited at Steiglitz's gallery, 291. By the time O'Keeffe saw the drawings again in the 1970's, some had faded and altered in other ways. Her revisions, done over fifty years later, are of great interest.

PROVENANCE:

Acquired from Doris Bry, 1975 — gifted to the present owner by the original purchaser