The Cornwall Library’s first annual literary fundraiser celebrates the 135th birthday of one of America’s foremost modernist painters, Georgia O’Keeffe. It features a slide lecture by Roxana Robinson entitled “Georgia O’Keeffe: Reading the Work as the Life.” The slides consist of photographs and artwork selected by Robinson, who is author of the definitive biography of O’Keeffe, to illuminate O’Keeffe’s life and reveal her stylistic development. The lecture examines her work chronologically, linking each painting to a passage in her life, and explaining the work through the life.

One of the greatest and most-admired artists of the twentieth century, O’Keeffe led a life rich in intense relationships–with family and friends, and especially with her husband, photographer and modern art promoter Alfred Stieglitz. Her extraordinary accomplishments as a radical modernist, using space and color in unique ways to create the dreamlike landscapes and the mysteriously powerful flowers, fruits and bones which she painted with such command, are all the more remarkable when understood within the long and complex narrative of her life.

When Roxana Robinson’s biography, Georgia O’Keeffe: A Life, was first published in 1989, it received rave reviews and was named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. The new edition published in 2020 features a new foreword by the author setting O’Keeffe in an artistic context over the 30 years since the book was first published. It also includes the story of Robinson’s own encounter with the artist, and previously unpublished letters of the young O’Keeffe to her beau, Arthur Macmahon. As interest in O’Keeffe continues to grow among museum-goers and scholars alike, this book remains indispensable for understanding her life and art.

This event helps support the Cornwall Library and its programs. It will take place in person at the library and online on Zoom. It will not be recorded. The fee for in-person attendance (including a signed copy of the latest edition of Robinson’s book and a birthday party with cake and refreshments) is $155. The fee for online access via Zoom is $50 (no book). Signed copies of the book can be ordered for $35 for pickup at the library in person–sorry, no mailing!

About the book, Georgia O’Keeffe: A Life:

The New York Times Book Review named this richly detailed and moving biography of the 20th century’s leading woman artist a Notable Book of the Year.

One of the greatest and most admired artists of the twentieth-century, Georgia O’Keeffe led a life rich in intense relationships—with family, friends, and especially with fellow artist Alfred Stieglitz. Her extraordinary accomplishments, such as the often eroticized flowers, bones, stones, skulls, and pelvises she painted with such command, are all the more remarkable when seen in the context of the struggle she waged between the rigorous demands of love and work.

When Roxana Robinson’s definitive biography of O’Keeffe was first published in 1989, it received rave reviews and was named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. This new edition features a new foreword by the author setting O’Keeffe in an artistic context over the last thirty years since the book was first published, as well as previously unpublished letters of the young O’Keeffe to her lover, Arthur Macmahon. It also relates the story of Robinson’s own encounter with the artist. As interest in O’Keeffe continues to grow among museum-goers and scholars alike, this book remains indispensable for understanding her life and art.

Learn more about Roxana Robinson on her website: www.roxanarobinson.com.

Links of interest – Roxana Robinson on Georgia O’Keeffe in The New Yorker:

How I Met the Reclusive Georgia O’Keeffe

Georgia O’Keeffe Finally Arrives in Paris

The Rivalry Between Georgia O’Keeffe and her Sister Ida