...this narrative traces the relations of these four strong people over several decades, in the hope of depicting the sometimes joyful, sometimes exasperated intermingling of their lives as artists, lovers, and friends…
Foursome: Alfred Stieglitz, Georgia O'Keeffe, Paul Strand, Rebecca Salsbury by Carolyn Burke; Hardcover, 432 pages; Published March 5th 2019 by Knopf Publishing Group; ISBN: 0307957292 (ISBN13: 9780307957290)
...this narrative traces the relations of these four strong people over several decades, in the hope of depicting the sometimes joyful, sometimes exasperated intermingling of their lives as artists, lovers, and friends…
I came to this review copy because of my interest in all four of the principals. Previous individual studies afforded me an insight relative to this book. But my supreme interest was in Georgia O’Keeffe, enough so that my partner and I engaged in a subsequent summer adventure to her New Mexico stomping grounds, particularly Santa Fe, Taos, Abiquiu, and the Ghost Ranch.
Though a bit long in the tooth, this extensive biography of this foursome serves the reader with abundant curiosity and titillation. Even with Stieglitz often leading the way, and his reluctance to exit the stage, the other three characters contribute enough to make their lives remarkable. Always the tension of sexuality in the foreground, masked or shaded, and even full-frontal when least expected.
..Steiglitz was on a crusade to convert those colleagues whose work he deemed “technically perfect, pictorially rotten.” He told a friend, “I would rather be a first-class photographer in a community of first-class photographers than the greatest photographer in a community of nonentities.”...Steiglitz believed that his mission was to teach Americans to seek vitality in art as in life…
This book is obviously about expression. Each character dealing with their own inadequacies and attempting to find their way into the art they individually craved and needed in order to live. What begins as basically two couples sharing their world together devolves into a singular artistic mission of each individual.
...Judging by the shots of Beck cradling her ample breasts, she understood his desire for women to seem complicitous in the “taking” of their likeness. Steiglitz would always appreciate how easily she gave herself to his camera, and to his fantasies…
Interesting to note how Rebecca Strand missed being photographed when her husband was away on a shoot, and Alfred and Georgia were nowhere in the vicinity. The competition previously created by Alfred between he and Paul Strand to shoot nude photographs of Rebecca was not surprising at all. The tension and playfulness behind the seduction of a camera, from both ends, is exhilarating and can be likened to withdrawal from a drug when not used regularly and in full measure. Alfred suffered from his apart-ness from Rebecca and her ample breasts as much as Beck yearned to be naked and naughty in front of his camera. Ultimately the resulting jealousy ruined the relationship between Stieglitz and Strand.
...In Georgia’s view, one had to face the shadows in order to carry on: “The vision ahead may seem a bit bleak but my feeling about life is a curious kind of triumphant feeling about —seeing it black—knowing it is so and walking into it fearlessly because one has no choice.”...
O’Keeffe went through dark periods in her life, especially when Alfred was having his long-term affair with his married assistant Dorothy Norman. Georgia attempted to “win” Alfred back and lost, which sent her into a dismal place she struggled for eighteen months or so to get out of. While recovering back east she was not happy with the lushness.
...Everything is so soft here. I do not work...I walk much and endure the green.”...
Rebecca also suffered in her later years. Aging, and the ailments that can come with it, was proving to be a challenge.
...pain is my constant companion...a rather bitter ‘swap’ for what we thought would be some wonderful last years together—they have been blasted and we must face whatever lies ahead. But if I am to eventually become bed-ridden I don’t want to live.”...
With Alfred Stieglitz dead, and O’Keeffe free to live as she wanted, she purchased a small home to renovate and expand in Abiquiu, and four years later moved there full-time, still spending summers at her adobe home in Ghost Ranch about twelve miles to the north. She was free to also travel a bit, but always glad to come home.
…”Most of what I see traveling are people unsatisfied—hunting the unknown that they will never find. Maybe I am queer that I am so singularly pleased with the life I have in N.M.”...”I have been working,” she told Anita, “trying to work my garden into a kind of permanent shape—so that if I live for twenty-five years it will be pleasant to walk about in by the time I am too old to do anything else.”...
O’Keeffe’s friend Anita Politzer worked on a biography with her approval. When Politzer sent O’Keeffe the finished manuscript she received a letter of rejection. Georgia offered to pay for her time but Anita never recovered from the shock.
...She disdained Politzer’s view of her as happy: “I do not like the idea of happyness [sic>]—it is too momentary—I would say that I was always busy and interested in something—interest has more meaning to me than the idea of happyness.”...
As a precursor to John Lennon and Yoko Ono, and their own sociological struggles resulting in song and protest, O’Keeffe broached the subject of the inequality of women.
...On the subject of her experience as a female artist, O’Keeffe said that the men she knew all “made it very plain that as a woman I couldn’t make it.” Then, with a “liberated smile,” she added, ”women have always been treated like Negroes in this country and they don’t know it.”...
It is not surprising that Georgia was the last one to go. Her independent spirit and love for creative endeavors kept her engaged in life. As much as the other three characters all brought to the table, O’Keeffe was the magnificent centerpiece.
In her eighties, Georgia reflected that her relationship with Alfred had been “really very good, because it was based on something more than just emotional needs.” She added, “Both of us were very interested in what the other was doing...Of course, you do your best to destroy each other without knowing it.”...
Thank you @The Rewind for the restack.