It's a brilliant idea, this current show at the MFA, Boston: "Georgia O'Keeffe and Henry Moore." They led parallel lives, never having met, but having created modernists masterpieces thousands of miles away from each other that uncannily echo each other today. Here is O'Keeffe's Red Tree, Yellow Sky (1952) and Moore's working model for his Standing Figure: Knife Edge (1961) in fiberglass. (He cast it in bronze in two full-sized versions.) Throughout the multiple galleries there are juxtapositions like this one. There are also re-creations of each artist's studio, O'Keeffe's in Northern New Mexico and Moore's in Hertfordshire, about thirty miles outside London. Bob and I are sorry that we didn't visit the Moore location when we went to Seth Kennedy's studio last November. He is an antiquarian horologist who was restoring a part of the famed silver swan automaton, so the trip was wonderful in and of itself. Of other missed opportunities: In the early 1980s I was asked by novelist Doris Grumbach if I would be interested in editing a book of letters written by O'Keeffe to a minor character in her personal history whose name and relationship to O'Keeffe I cannot now recall. At any rate, I declined. I was very much involved with my own work, fiction at the time. That project would have caused me to veer off my path, and I know I would have regretted it. Within that year, a story was chosen for the Best American Short Stories annual and I felt I was on my way... I saw the O'Keeffe-Moore show during the press preview. I no longer write reviews of exhibitions, but I still get invited to these early looks. I suppose I could call myself an influencer -- of a dozen people or so (if that many)! I hope that suffices for the refreshments and the opportunity in this case to hear the remarks of the incredible Erica Hirshler, the MFA's John Moors Cabot curator of American painting. When she speaks, she continually looks individual members of the audience directly in the eye. Even without that device, her words, full of original, memorable phrases, would have been captivating. She is completely free of jargon... As she pointed out, both O'Keeffe and Moore loved found objects. There were several on display in the Moore workshop mockup, e.g., a piece of driftwood that looked exactly like a miniature goat's head. I resolved to start looking more closely at the natural things around me. Since I spend more time walking than writing these days, I have the perfect opportunity.
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AuthorThe "Commentaries" portion of this website is a record of some of Ms. Schinto's cultural experiences, e.g., books read, TV series watched, movies seen, exhibits visited, plays and musical events attended, etc. She also from time to time will post short essays on various topics. |