From the Faraway Nearby: Georgia O'Keeffe as Icon - Softcover

Merrill, Christopher

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0201624761 ISBN 13: 9780201624762

Publisher: Addison-Wesley, 1993

Synopsis

Nearly everyone recognizes her paintings of flowers or desert bones, or knows some detail of her fascinating life, but it has always been difficult to separate O'Keeffe's art and life from her public image. Now comes a broad-ranging examination of her personal life and artistic legacy through memoirs, poetry, photographs, and essays.

About this title

About the Author:

Ellen Bradbury is director of Recursos de Santa Fe.

From Library Journal:

The abundant O'Keeffe literature is almost universally biographical. Admired for her boldness, strength of character, passion, success, and fiercely unapologetic independence, O'Keeffe has inspired a personality cult of mythic proportions. Her passage to the best-known woman in American art is further glorified by these two offerings. From the Faraway Nearby is a wide-ranging composite of essays, memoirs, and creative excursions by 20 contributors, divided into two sections, "The Work" and "The Woman." The first section contains scholarly critique and occasional demythologization, while essays in the second section reflect and in some cases extend the power of O'Keeffe's myths. The collection provides a snapshot of the current position that the artist and her work hold in American culture. Miss O'Keeffe is a personal account of the last 18 months of the artist's life. An artist herself, Patten served as a nurse, cook, and companion to the 96-year-old legend. Coauthor Cardona-Hine is a poet and translator. The portrait they offer of O'Keeffe is poignant and pathetic: weak, too blind to work, lonely, and confused, she suffered from diminishing spirit but still enjoyed the visits of attentive friends. The work will appeal to readers anxious for details about her final months, particularly the controversial changes to her will. It goes beyond a mere footnote in art history, however, in its poetic evocation of old age and friendship. Glimpses of the artist in old age are beguiling. At 97, for example, she still enjoyed being read aloud to from Vasily Kandinsky's Concerning the Spiritual in Art . Recommended for collections already strong in O'Keeffe literature.
- Russell T. Clement, Brigham Young Univ. Lib., Provo, Ut .
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Addison-Wesley
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0201624761
• ISBN 13: 9780201624762
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Editor: Bradbury Ellen