G eorgia O’Keeffe’s pioneering Modernism extended beyond the flowers and desert landscapes for which she is known. The Brooklyn Museum is taking a fascinating look at the artist’s fiercely independent life and how she used her distinctive style to forge a public persona. Along with her own paintings and illuminating photographs of her by Alfred Stieglitz, Ansel Adams, Cecil Beaton, Bruce Weber and others, some of O’Keeffe’s garments from the 1920s to the 1980s are on display.
ALFRED STIEGLITZ’S PORTRAIT OF GEORGIA O’KEEFFE, CIRCA 1920–22. © GEORGIA O’KEEFFE MUSEUM
With tailored suits, capes and caftans as well as white-collared black ensembles, her elegantly androgynous wardrobe embodies a feminist desire to be judged by her work rather than by her gender – a concern still shared by women artists today.
Georgia O’Keeffe: Living Modern is on view at the Brooklyn Museum in New York through 23 July.
