Georgia O’Keeffe and Henry Moore are together in this exhibition because “they both found art in nature”. Seems like a pretty flimsy reason to marry them. Georgia O’Keeffe does these paintings of flowers, huge flowers, full of colour, and landscapes of the New Mexico desert, quite abstract. Henry Moore is a sculptor, carving stone and wood, often gigantic sculptures, also quite abstract. Along with other artists from the 1920s, this exhibition highlights the use of nature in what the MFA calls “organic abstraction”. I really appreciated the art of Georgia O’Keeffe and her personality through several videos. A nice discovery.
“The cliffs over there. You look at it, and it’s almost painted for you, you think, until you try. I tried to paint what I saw. I thought someone would tell me how to paint a landscape. But I never found that person. I had to just settle down and try. I thought someone would tell me how, but I found nobody could. They could tell you how they painted their landscape, but they couldn’t tell me to paint mine.”