Flower Power

Georgia O'Keefe is a wonderful artist; her style is unmistakeable. She's an iconic figure in the Southwest with her spare, timeless looks. What I didn't know is that most of her well-known paintings, especially those giant flowers, were painted early in her career, long before she moved to New Mexico and became a household name. The current show at the deYoung takes an interesting look at her earlier works and the influence her mentor/husband, Alfred Stieglitz, had on her work. There is also an interesting little movie in the show that talks about her life in the desert, but the works themselves are from the time in New York, especially in the Adirondack compound on Lake George owned by Stieglitz's family. 

Cousin Jan and I spent an enjoyable couple of hours at this show which, interestingly, was overwhelmingly visited by women if our sample is representative. I guess the idea of giant flower paintings puts most guys off?  In any case, we enjoyed seeing those, but especially her lesson-known works. There was a wonderful painting of the glowing red maples in fall - since I have been to the Adirondacks in that season, I realized that she wasn't exaggerating the colors at all - the flaming hardwood trees are made to seem even brighter by their juxtaposition with dark green conifers. Perhaps my favorite of these works was the quietest of the whole show, a wonderful barn with a light dusting of snow. Very little color was used and yet the visual impact was powerful.

After absorbing all we could of the show for the moment, we sauntered into the museum cafe for a little lunch. I am tickled by the way the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, (which runs both the Legion and the deYoung) have recently begun theming their menu offerings to the current shows. This time, a Waldorf salad with chicken (in honor of her New York years, one supposes) was decorated with the same pansies shown in some of her large flower paintings. Having just seen some of these in the show, I really noticed the details of the flowers. Jan and I split the salad and a pastrami sandwich they called the "Nu Yawka." A little corny but, hey, at least they are trying and it was pretty good. It wasn't a true New York Reuben, but it was Reubenesque.

We came away with lots of strong images playing in our heads as we drove home. A different kind of flower power, all good.