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02/05/2025
profile-icon Liz Ehrnst

Stop by the library this month and discover some new books!

Cover ArtHarmony and Dissonance: Orphism in Paris, 1910-1930 by Vivien Greene (Editor)
Call Number: N6848.5.O7 H37 2024
Currently on view at the Guggenheim Museum in New York is the exhibition Harmony and Dissonance: Orphism in Paris, 1910–1930, which examines the abstract art of Orphism. From the curators: Orphism emerged in the early 1910s, when the innovations brought about by modern life were radically altering conceptions of time and space. Artists connected to Orphism engaged with ideas of simultaneity in kaleidoscopic compositions, investigating the transformative possibilities of color, form, and motion.

The exhibition and catalog “explores the transnational movement’s developments in Paris, addressing the impact dance, music, and poetry had on the art, among other themes” through over 90 artworks by artists including Robert Delaunay, Sonia Delaunay, Marcel Duchamp, Mainie Jellett, František Kupka, Francis Picabia, and Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso, and by the Synchromists Stanton Macdonald-Wright and Morgan Russell.

 

Cover ArtAlexander Girard: Let the Sun In by Todd Oldham; Kiera Coffee
Call Number: NK1412.G57 O43 2024

This monumental monograph delves into the design career of Alexander Girard (1907–1993), a leading figure in mid-century American design, known for introducing color and pattern to the modernist aesthetic. Covering Girard’s prolific output across textiles, furniture, interior design, graphic design, illustration, and architecture, the visually stunning and thoroughly researched book features over 800 images, some of which have never been seen before including a few of Georgia O’Keeffe and her work.   

 

 

Cover ArtInventing the Modern: Untold Stories of the Women Who Shaped The Museum of Modern Art by Ann Temkin (Editor); Romy Silver-Kohn (Editor); Anna Deavere Smith (Foreword by)
Call Number: N620.M9 I58 2024

Founded in 1929, the Museum of Modern Art owes much of its early success to a number of remarkable women who shaped the future of the institution in its first decades. This book profiles 14 pioneering figures who made an indelible mark not only on MoMA, but on the culture of their time. 

 
 
Cover ArtCalder: Sculpting Time by Ana Mingot (Editor); Carmen Gimenez (Editor)
Call Number: NB237.C28 C35 2024

Alexander Calder (1898–1976) moved to Paris in the late 1920s, where he found himself at the center of the city’s artistic avant-garde. In 1930, he invented the mobile—an abstract sculpture made of independent parts that incorporate natural or mechanical movement. He would continue to explore the possibilities of this visual language for the rest of his career, eventually shifting to monumental constructions and public works. This beautiful publication surveys a wide-ranging selection of works from Calder’s most prolific period highlights the role of time in his groundbreaking sculptural practice.


Please feel free to remove and check out the books on display at the self-checkout station. Don’t worry, we’ll replace them with new incoming books!

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Have questions? Please contact Liz Ehrnst or Bonnie Steward

 
07/29/2024
Hannah Yetwin
No Subjects

This post was written by our 2024 Library and Archives Intern, Miranda Hynes. Miranda joins us from UT Austin where she is studying Art History and Museum Studies, and will be here through mid-August.

As the Library and Archives Intern at the O’Keeffe Museum this summer, I’ve been working on processing, rehousing, and creating a finding aid for the Jan Garden Castro Collection Relating to The Art and Life of Georgia O’Keeffe. After about a month of work, the process is finally complete! The Jan Garden Castro Collection comprises materials relating to the creation of Garden Castro’s book, The Art and Life of Georgia O’Keeffe, which was published in 1985.  The finding aid has now been published and can be viewed here: Jan Garden Castro Collection Relating to the Art and Life of Georgia O'Keeffe Finding Aid

This collection holds all of the research for Garden Castro’s book. Items of interest in the collection include audio cassette tapes of interviews with Ansel Adams, conducted by Garden Castro. There are also multiple exchanges of correspondence between O’Keeffe (and her staff) and Garden Castro. Finally, there are many other pieces of correspondence between Garden Castro and friends or colleagues in O’Keeffe’s life, such as fellow artist Rebecca Strand.  

Archives like the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum's provide invaluable resources to the public, to academics and researchers, and to curators– the Jan Garden Castro Collection is an example of a collection which could be greatly beneficial to researchers. It’s a deeply gratifying job, but I’ve found that very few people outside of the archival field know what exactly we do every day, and much of archiving was still unknown to me before I started this internship. Thus, when I say that I completed the processing, rehousing, and finding aid for the Jan Garden Castro Collection, you might be asking: what do those words mean? 

Archival processing is what archivists do when we’re incorporating a collection into the archive. This consists mainly of taking inventory of all the files and documents, identifying and naming them, and organizing them in a way that makes sense. For example, in the Garden Castro Collection, all of the audio cassettes are grouped together in one section, whereas correspondence is in a different section. 

Rehousing is where we take the old folders and boxes that house documents and replace them with archival-grade folders and boxes, which don’t deteriorate as quickly. In this case, the Garden Castro collection had a lot of folders that dated back to the 70’s and 80’s, many of which showed signs of deterioration. Sometimes, this also means that we have an opportunity to physically group documents in a way that makes more logical sense than how we originally received them. 

Creating a finding aid is the part of the process that you can all see on our archive’s website. Under the Garden Castro Collection entry, if you’re searching specifically for correspondence with individuals from the 70’s to 80’s, those documents are clearly labeled. This is all in an effort to make documents more easily findable by subject, material type, or time period– depending on how the collection is organized. If you’re interested in better understanding how finding aids work, I’d highly recommend looking around the Archives website, which has all of our finding aids.   

I hope that I’ve helped de-mystify some aspects of archival work for you all.

 

The Art & Life of Georgia O'Keeffe, Jan Garden Castro, Crown Publishers, 1995 

 

Correspondence between Georgia O’Keeffe and Jan Garden Castro, bulk: 1980 – 1983, Jan Garden Castro Relating to The Art and Life of Georgia O'Keeffe. MS-69. Gift of Jan Garden Castro. Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. 

 

Research on Institutions, Permission Forms, bulk: 1973-1987, Jan Garden Castro Relating to The Art and Life of Georgia O'Keeffe. MS-69. Gift of Jan Garden Castro. Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. 

07/01/2024
Hannah Yetwin
No Subjects

This post was written by our 2024 Library and Archives Intern, Miranda Hynes. Miranda joins us from UT Austin where she is studying Art History and Museum Studies, and will be on the team through August. Stay tuned for more guest posts from her this summer! 

As the Library and Archives Intern at The O’Keeffe, I’m currently working on processing the Jan Garden Castro Collection, which includes writing a finding aid for the museum’s archival finding aid database. Jan Garden Castro is the author of The Art and Life of Georgia O’Keeffe, a well-known book about O’Keeffe published in 1985, and the content of the Garden Castro Collection in our archive relates mainly to the research and production of that book.

The Art & Life of Georgia O'Keeffe, Jan Garden Castro, Crown Publishers, 1995

The Jan Garden Castro Collection holds a number of interesting documents, including correspondence with O’Keeffe herself and cassette tape interviews conducted by Castro, including Ansel Adams and other important figures who knew O’Keeffe personally. More broadly, a look through the Garden Castro collection depicts what it was like to write a book about O’Keeffe when she was still alive, from research and interviews to the ever-demanding publishing process. While working to process this collection, I stumbled across several interesting letters, but the most unexpected example is from Margaret Atwood, world-famous author of The Handmaid’s Tale.

 Research on and Correspondence with Individuals, bulk: 1973-1993, Jan Garden Castro Relating to The Art and Life of Georgia O'Keeffe. MS-69. Gift of Jan Garden Castro. Georgia O'Keeffe Museum.

In this letter Atwood notes that she attached bound page proofs of The Handmaid’s Tale, which was published that very year in 1985. When Castro received this letter and the manuscript accompanying it, she would have had no idea that she was reading what would soon become one of the world’s contemporary classics. Working in archives, unexpected finds like this are always so exciting. Stay tuned for another post about the completed processing and finding aid for this collection!

07/01/2024
profile-icon Liz Ehrnst

Drop by the library and check out the new books!

Cover ArtGeorgia O'Keeffe: My New Yorks by Sarah Kelly Oehler; Annelise K. Madsen; Adrienne Brown; Sascha T. Scott; Lisa Volpe
  • Book icon. Used with books and pamphlets.
Call Number: ND237.O5 A4 2024
Georgia O’Keeffe: "My New Yorks" is the accompanying catalog for the highly anticipated exhibition currently on view at the Art Institute of Chicago. The exhibition is the "first to seriously examine O’Keeffe’s paintings, drawings, and pastels of urban landscapes, while also situating them in the diverse context of her other compositions of the 1920s and early 1930s." The publication features beautiful illustrations and scholarly essays, and is worth reading if you are unable to visit the exhibition in person. Exhibition Schedule: The Art Institute of Chicago, June 2–September 22, 2024, High Museum, Atlanta, October 25, 2024–February 16, 2025.
 
Maria and Modernism by Diana Pardue (Editor)
  • Book icon. Used with books and pamphlets.
Call Number: E99.S213 M3748 2024
Maria Martinez (1887-1980) was the widely celebrated ceramicist of Tewa heritage from San Ildefonso Pueblo/ Po-woh-ge-oweenge who "despite her artistic contributions and the decades of research, exhibitions, and scholarship focused on a career that spanned more than seven decades, has yet to be recognized as a prominent American Modernist." The exhibition and catalog, Maria & Modernism, examines her pottery within the movements of her time and her continued influence on artists. The thoughtfully designed catalog features numerous full color images of the life and work of Martinez alongside scholarly essays, including one from Cody Hartley, Director of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. Maria & Modernism is on view at the Heard Museum until July 28, 2024.
 
Cover ArtObjects in Exile: Modern Art and Design Across Borders, 1930–1960 by Robin Schuldenfrei
  • Book icon. Used with books and pamphlets.
Call Number: BH301.M54 S38 2024
An important new read on how emigration and resettlement defined and changed modern art and design. "One of the most interesting and essential texts on modernism to be written in the last decade. … Schuldenfrei has made a fairly niche art historical subject incredibly approachable with brilliant but accessible text. … [Objects in Exile] is a phenomenally well researched and important text on the subject and should be required reading for anyone interested in modern art and design." — Angelina Lippert, New York Journal of Books

 

 
Cover ArtArt and Knowledge After 1900: Interactions Between Modern Art and Thought by James Fox (Editor); Vid Simoniti (Editor)
  • Book icon. Used with books and pamphlets.
Call Number: N72.S3 A78 2023

This book looks at the relationship between visual artists and various disciplines of knowledge from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present day. From the publisher, "the chapters gathered here show how scientific and spiritual theories informed the evolution of abstraction, how psychoanalysis influenced the meanings and methods of Surrealism, and how in the second half of the century artists made increasingly frequent and sophisticated incursions into academic practices, including history, philosophy, economics, cybernetics, sociology, ecology, biotechnology and archival research."


Please feel free to remove and check out the books on display at the self-checkout station. Don’t worry, we’ll replace them with new incoming books!

Need a library account? Sign up online

Have questions? Contact any one of us on the research team: Liz Ehrnst, Bonnie Steward, Hannah Yetwin

06/18/2024
Hannah Yetwin
No Subjects

This post was written by our 2024 Library and Archives Intern, Miranda Hynes. Miranda joins us from UT Austin where she is studying Art History and Museum Studies, and will be on the team through August. Stay tuned for more guest posts from her this summer! 

 

Copyright © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.

In celebration of this Pride Month, we’re shining a light on the friendship between Georgia O’Keeffe and arguably the most famous openly gay artist of the 20th century– Andy Warhol! Though it’s not clear exactly when the two artists first came into contact, they met multiple times before O’Keeffe’s passing in 1986. Not only are there a number of photos of the two together (like the picture above, taken in 1977), Andy Warhol was inspired by O’Keeffe to create multiple projects about her. For one, O’Keeffe was the subject of one of Warhol’s influential silk-screen portrait series, where a photograph portrait of O’Keeffe was printed and re-printed in high contrast color combinations. Warhol also wrote an article for Interview Magazine in 1983 entitled “Georgia O’Keeffe Stays True to her Vision,” wherein Warhol interviewed O’Keeffe and her assistant, Juan Hamilton. In this interview, O’Keeffe aptly says about Warhol: “I think he’s going to be one of the important persons of the period,” (you can read the full interview here). Though much of their friendship was a professional relationship, Warhol did visit O’Keeffe’s home in Abiquiu, New Mexico. In fact, Warhol tried to leave his signature on part of O’Keeffe’s beloved house. Agapita Judy Lopez worked for O’Keeffe in the late 70’s and early 80’s and is the Project Director of Historic Properties at Abiquiu and Ghost Ranch at the O’Keeffe Museum today. She shared this story with me:  

“I don’t remember the year, but that summer I worked for Miss O’Keeffe and stayed with her at her Ghost Ranch house.  One day as I came in to work, I informed her I was there and asked how the day had gone.  She remarked that the housekeeper, Ida, had come to her in the morning quite upset that someone had written on the refrigerator door, but for Miss O’Keeffe not to worry, she had washed it off.  It turned out Andy Warhol had visited Miss O’Keeffe the day before and autographed the corner of the refrigerator door and that was what Ida washed off!” 

If you want to watch a talk from Agapita, who has many first-hand experiences with Georgia O’Keeffe, you can click here. The connection between the two artists has extended long after their respective passings, such as the gift of one of Warhol’s polaroid books from the Andy Warhol Foundation to the O’Keeffe Museum, which is now held in the Museum’s collections. In 2005, the O’Keeffe Museum mounted an exhibit which displayed the two artists’ works side-by-side, focusing on a subject that they both returned to many times throughout their lives: flowers.  

 

Moments in Modernism - Georgia O'Keeffe and Andy Warhol: Flowers of Distinction, 2005 May 13 through 2006 January 8, Museum Publications - Exhibitions (RG311). Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. 

By the time Georgia O’Keeffe and Andy Warhol met, he had been living as an out gay man for around two decades, in a time where being gay was still vilified and even criminalized. Warhol's art– as well as the music, celebrities, and social world which surrounded him– are iconic pieces of LGBTQ history to this day. Though some may view the pop-art of Warhol’s time as very different from O’Keeffe’s many paintings, both artists produced works that were rooted in being unabashedly individual, an ideal that we can all aspire to. Happy Pride!  

03/19/2024
profile-icon Liz Ehrnst

Last week, the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum library and archive welcomed two photographs of Georgia O’Keeffe to the collection. The photographs were created by Patricia Ebsworth in 1981 on the day of her wedding at O’Keeffe’s house in Abiquiu, NM. Patricia’s husband, Barney Ebsworth, a long-time friend and collector of O’Keeffe’s work, made a special request of O’Keeffe to have an intimate and brief wedding at her home. She agreed to host the couple and serve as witness to the wedding. Ebsworth later spoke about the event in an oral history interview with Sarah Burt of The Georgia O’Keefe Foundation.

...That was in 1981. I was surprised that I didn't have any notes from that, but maybe I figured that I'd never forget it. It's sort of interesting, and sad, too, that when that happened, she was squeezing Patricia's hands the whole time and saying, "I don't believe in marriage. I'm doing this for Barney. I've only been to two weddings in my life. It was when I married Alfred [and this one]." If that was the case, I was sort of startled that she'd never been to another friend's wedding...

Excerpt from an interview with Barney Ebsworth, 2002

The photographs were a gift of Deanne Kloepfer in honor of Patricia Ebsworth and will be added to the archive and available to the public soon. Learn more about the Barney Ebsworth interview and other oral histories in the archive at Georgia O'Keeffe Oral History Project, ca. 1970s, 1991-2010.

 

10/24/2023
Hannah Yetwin

For this year's American Archives Month, we have been spotlighting the Georgia O’Keeffe Papers (MS33), to celebrate the completion of processing and the publication of the finding aid after many years and several archivists. 

To wrap this year's American Archives Month up, we will turn our focus to one of the more popular series of the collection: the House and Property files. O’Keeffe maintained two homes in Northern New Mexico; her summer home at the Ghost Ranch, and her home and studio in Abiquiu. While both homes are owned by the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, only the Abiquiu Home and Studio is open for public tours. O’Keeffe’s homes reveal her commitment to design and the aesthetics of her surroundings. She made her home distinctly modern, with abundant natural light, updated amenities and midcentury furniture. She kept manuals and brochures from appliances and tools that she used, including her Chemex carafes, Macintosh radio, and Barwa chairs.

O’Keeffe was also an avid gardener; when she purchased her Abiquiu home in 1945, she hired Maria Chabot to manage the restoration and rebuilding of the property to take place between 1946 and 1949, while O’Keeffe was in New York settling Alfred Stieglitz’s estate. Chabot planned to line the perimeter of the garden with tamarisks, willows and various fruit trees. The center of the garden would be leveled for planting vegetables and flowers (corn, radishes, roses, irises, poppies and hollyhocks). By the time O’Keeffe made Abiquiu her permanent home in 1949, the garden was able to supply almost all of the fruits and vegetables for her homes. She harvested the plants during the summer, enjoying the fresh produce at her Ghost Ranch home and preserving other herbs, fruits and vegetables for winter use at the Abiquiu house by drying, canning and freezing them. The garden at her Abiquiu home remains much as it was during her lifetime. Staff and interns, who live in Abiquiu and surrounding communities, work the land every summer and distribute the fruits and vegetables locally and to nearby food banks. 

The materials related to the garden in the Georgia O’Keeffe Papers include these seed catalogs, instructional manuals, irrigation techniques, and a “Victory Garden Handbook”.

 House and property files, 1943-1983, undated, Georgia O’Keeffe Papers, 1914-1991. MS-33. Gift of the Georgia O'Keeffe Foundation. Georgia O'Keeffe Museum.

10/19/2023
Hannah Yetwin

To continue our celebration of American Archives Month 2023, we are featuring content from newly processed collections from our archive each week. This year, we are spotlighting the Georgia O’Keeffe Papers (MS33), to celebrate the completion of processing and the publication of the finding aid after many years and several archivists. 

Another series in this collection includes Georgia O’Keeffe's travel ephemera. She famously loved to travel and equally loved to document these travels, creating boxes of ephemera for each location she visited. She took her first international trip in the 1930s and traveled continuously until 1983, when she went on her last international trip to Costa Rica at the age of 96. From informational pamphlets to design ideas for her home and garden, these materials reflect what she chose to keep as mementos of her travels. For more information about her travels, see the August “Mornings with O’Keeffe” talk given by Giustina Renzoni, Curator of Historic Properties, here.

These photos include pamphlets from O'Keeffe's trips to the Glen Canyon and Lake Powell area, New Mexico, Mexico, and Tahiti.

 

Travel Files 1946-circa 1980, Georgia O’Keeffe Papers, 1914-1991. MS-33. Gift of the Georgia O'Keeffe Foundation. Georgia O'Keeffe Museum.

 

10/12/2023
Hannah Yetwin

To continue our celebration of American Archives Month 2023, which happens every October, we are featuring content from newly processed collections from our archive each week. This year, we are spotlighting the Georgia O’Keeffe Papers (MS33), to celebrate the completion of processing and the publication of the finding aid after many years and several archivists. 

Another subseries in this collection is the Abiquiu Notebooks, which are essentially documentation of O’Keeffe herself as an archivist. These notebooks are a comprehensive index of her works dating from 1914 through the 1970s, sorted by date, location, and subject, and include reference photographs. The notebooks also include the Alfred Stieglitz estate distribution, which took O’Keeffe 3 years to settle.

The Abiquiu Notebooks are O'Keeffe's own records of her artwork, originally compiled by Doris Bry, chief assistant, curator, exclusive dealer and, finally, executor of O'Keeffe's estate, in the 1950s. The Notebooks document titles, dimensions, owners, exhibition history, and more in the form of an individual factsheet for each work, and often include reference photographs to remove the ambiguity around paintings' identities. Additional business papers include exhibition records, especially ephemera and checklists, as well as papers from O'Keeffe's time working with Edith Halpert and the Downtown Gallery, such as receipts, correspondence, and lists.

These photos are examples of O’Keeffe works by creation date and the accompanying exhibition history. Paintings shown in order: Maple and Cedar, Lake George 1923; Pattern of Leaves, 1923; and Pink Moon and Blue Lines, 1923.

Abiquiu Notebooks, 1914-1980, Georgia O’Keeffe Papers, 1914-1991. MS-33. Gift of the Georgia O'Keeffe Foundation. Georgia O'Keeffe Museum.

10/05/2023
Hannah Yetwin

To celebrate American Archives Month 2023, which happens every October, we are featuring content from newly processed collections from our archive each week. This year, we are spotlighting the Georgia O’Keeffe Papers (MS33), to celebrate the completion of processing and the publication of the finding aid after many years and several archivists. 

A fascinating element of the Georgia O’Keeffe Papers documents her subterranean fallout shelter located at her Abiquiu home and studio. For some historical context, O’Keeffe was born in 1887 into a post-Civil War America. She lived through the Depression, World War II, the Vietnam War, and much of the Cold War. She began spending her summers at the Ghost Ranch cottage in 1935, and 10 years later, she bought a house down the road in Abiquiu. O’Keeffe moved in for good in 1949 – the year that the Soviet Union detonated their first nuclear test in Kazakhstan. Throughout the 1950s, nuclear tests took place all over the New Mexican desert, and O’Keeffe may have felt and seen the infamous “Trinity” test from Ghost Ranch.

By 1965, an estimated 200,000 shelters had been built across the country. According to Pita Lopez, the Museum's Director of Historic Properties, O’Keeffe built hers because she “wanted to be around to see what the landscape would look like if there was ever a catastrophe.”

The archival materials include handwritten instructions for reading the Victoreen Fallout Detection Meter, which was a device that will “tell you at a glance the rate of exposure at moment of exposure and helps you seek a safe refuge immediately. A precision instrument for protecting against lethal gamma rays from atomic fallout, it is the civilian version of the official model sold to the government by Victoreen.”

House and Property Files, Georgia O’Keeffe Papers, 1914-1991. MS-33. Gift of the Georgia O'Keeffe Foundation. Georgia O'Keeffe Museum.

 

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