Love letters of O'Keeffe, Stieglitz exposed in new book

10 August 2011

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In this photo provided by Alfred Stieglitz/Georgia O'Keeffe archive, Portrait with Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz by automobile at Lake George, N.Y.

(Alfred Stieglitz/Georgia O'Keeffe Archive, Albuquerque Journal / AP) )

When Albert Stieglitz and Georgia O'Keeffe met in 1916, he was 52 and already considered the nucleus of the New York art world. She was an unknown 28-year-old Texas art teacher.

National Gallery of Art photography curator Sarah Greenough leafed through 25,000 pieces of paper exchanged by O'Keeffe and Stieglitz to produce "My Faraway One: The Letters of Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz, Volume I, 1915-1933," (Yale University Press, 2011) an 800-page tome which represents just one-tenth of their correspondence.

The letters trace the couple's romance, his early support of her art career, and the eventual crack in their bond that led O'Keeffe to a more independent life in New Mexico.

O'Keeffe's artistic process is also revealed in passages such as:

"I hate the back of my Ranchos church — Tomorrow I must get out at it again — It is heavy — I want it to be light and lovely and singing."

Read more at Albuquerqe Journal

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