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A captivating, spirited account of the intense relationship among four artists whose strong personalities, passionate feelings, and aesthetic ideals drew them together, pulled them apart, and profoundly influenced the very shape of twentieth-century art-- "A captivating, spirited account of the intense relationships between four artists whose strong personalities, passionate feelings, and aesthetic ideals drew them together, pulled them apart, and profoundly influenced the very shape of twentieth-century art. New York, 1921: Alfred Stieglitz, the most influential figure in early twentieth-century photography, celebrates the success of his latest exhibition--the centerpiece, a series of nude portraits of the young Georgia O'Keeffe, soon to be his wife. It is a turning point for O'Keeffe, poised to make her entrance into the art scene--and for Rebecca Salsbury, the fiancée of Stieglitz's protégé Paul Strand. When Strand introduces Salsbury to Stieglitz and O'Keeffe, it is the start of a bond between the two couples that would last more than a decade and reverberate throughout their lives. In the years that followed, O'Keeffe and Stieglitz became the preeminent couple in American modern art, spurring each other's creativity. Observing their relationship led Salsbury to encourage new artistic possibilities for Strand and to rethink her own potential as an artist. In fact, it was Salsbury, the least known of the four, who was the main thread that wove the two couples' lives together. Carolyn Burke mines the recently available correspondence of the foursome to reveal how each of them inspired, provoked, and unsettled the others while pursuing seminal modes of artistic innovation. The result is an illuminating and revelatory portrait of four extraordinary lives."--Dust jacket.… (more)
User reviews
I learned quite a bit about these four people, as well as their relationships, although
The relationships among these four people were complicated; they both learned and grew from each other and hurt each other. Though the author never says why she chose to write this book, I think it would be difficult to get a full picture of each individual artist without being aware of and having some understanding of their relationships.
Paul Strand's embrace of communism, even after the world saw the Lenin, Stalin, Mao totalitarian waltz, is troubling and head-scratching but does not change the majesty of his work.
Dr. Phil might be willing to offer a diagnostic guess to the behavior of someone he has not met. I don't feel comfortable doing so, especially if that someone I've never met died before my parents graduated kindergarten. That being said, the life of Alfred Stieglitz could easily be an early snapshot of sex addiction. Although to be fair, he could be your garden variety, misogynistic cad.
But for me, the bloom has been slapped off the Georgia O'Keeffe flower by her own hand. After Alfred and Georgia were married, some of his family came for a summertime visit. One young girl skipped up excitedly and said hello to her, "Aunt Georgia." O'Keeffe slapped the child and told the girl, "Never call me "Aunt Georgia" again." Obviously, this doesn't change a single brilliant brushstroke of her work. However, it creates such darkness around her that her art becomes very hard to see.