Part III: Geogia O'Keefe Countrycreated 7/3/2001 Georgia O’Keeffe did retire in New Mexico, after she spent half of her life in New York City. In fact, in her early years living in New Mexico, she did a lot of paintings, paintings depicting New Mexico landscape, barren desert and mesas (table mountains), and adobe buildings. For many people, her paintings are how they come to familiarize with New Mexico scenery. Her paintings make younger generations even more fascinated with the beauty of New Mexico. And I am one of them. I first came to know O’Keeffe’s works through a close female friend. She described how O’Keeffe was obsessed about painting extreme close-up of flowers, all types of flowers: Iris, orchards, poppies, and especially lilies. New Yorker Magazine called her “Our Lady of Lilies.� Art critics even focused on her flowers as metaphor for female sex and desire. I have seen a lot of these flower paintings in museums in DC, New York, and Chicago. They don’t really interest me that much (and I just couldn’t associate them with �). What intrigued me are her paintings of New Mexico scenery, with its mountains, desert and sky. Sky seems always so blue and cloudless. While the mountains, with various shades of red, usually look surreal. She’s also fascinated with animals� skulls and pelvis bones. Many of her paintings are close-up of these bones. Paying extra $5 (it is not included in Museum of New Mexico 4-Day Pass), I come into Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. Seeing its small exhibition, I felt a little bit disappointed though. A feeling just like after I visited van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Most of van Gogh’s famous paintings are either in Paris or New York. Then I found, most of O’Keeffe’s famous works I recalled from catalogues are in New York, Washington DC, or Chicago. Of course, it still made me feel great to have such a pilgrimage to a museum dedicated itself completely to one of my favorite American artists. And it made me feel good to know I would still have chance to see her (works) when I’m back to New York. Though Georgia O’Keeffe spent the last 4 decades of her life in New Mexico. She didn’t spend much of her life in Santa Fe. Only until she got very ill, she moved to Santa Fe to spend the last two years of her life. She dies in 1986, at the age of 98. Georgia O’Keeffe Museum first opened its door in 1997. Ironically, I read that O’Keeffe never got along too well with people from Santa Fe and never liked it too much. Maybe that’s part of the reasons why she spent most of her time in New Mexico countryside. Isn’t it ironic if, let’s try this scenario: in 2097, W.H. Kuo Museum (in memory of a writer who could use 6 languages to write non-sense travelogues and took extremely cheesy photos of places he visited) have a grand opening at the Inner Harbor of Baltimore. It is built in Baltimore because Kuo spent more than 40 years living in Maryland (as a former chief of NIH, the first Asian to hold such post in US history). Even Kuo lived in Rockville and only did his clubbing and social scene in Washington DC It is said that Kuo went out clubbing well til� his 110’s), Baltimore still won over the right to build the Museum - because it is the largest and the most important city in Maryland. Then, in the exhibition, museum visitors find out that Kuo’s articles always show some contempt about the city this museum is located... I guess I won’t be alive to protest that.
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