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'Georgia O'Keeffe: The Brightness of Light' documentary illuminates the artist's NM connection
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New York brought Georgia O鈥橩eeffe fame. New Mexico brought her freedom.
Among the multiple documentaries created about her, none have given the iconic artist the full biographical treatment, complete with massive research, the artist鈥檚 letters and the cooperation of her namesake museum.
鈥淚 can鈥檛 think of another project, at least not in my tenure鈥� where the museum has cooperated so fully with a filmmaker, said Cody Hartley, director of the Georgia O鈥橩eeffe Museum.
'Georgia O'Keeffe: The Brightness of Light' documentary illuminates the artist's NM connection
鈥淚t was a rare opportunity to support a theatrical documentary,鈥� he said.
鈥淚t鈥檚 beautifully produced and filmed. They secured the participation of nearly every major scholar in the last 40 years. All these voices are featured. They got an interview with her at Ghost Ranch that I had never seen before. For me, it was very powerful.
鈥淭hey had Claire Danes do the voice of Georgia O鈥橩eeffe,鈥� Hartley continued. 鈥淚鈥檝e seen people try to act the part of Georgia O鈥橩eeffe, and it鈥檚 very hard to get it right. She used her own voice in a way that feels right. I hope that it reaches a broad and a new audience.鈥�
So maintains Paul Wagner, co-producer of 鈥淕eorgia O鈥橩eeffe: The Brightness of Light.鈥� The film is set to debut at the Santa Fe International Film Festival on Saturday, Oct. 19, and Sunday, Oct. 20, at the city鈥檚 Center for Contemporary Art and the New Mexico History Museum, respectively. Danes voices O鈥橩eeffe; Hugh Dancy is the narrator.
The documentary gestated for five years, shooting at locations in northern New Mexico, New York City and Charlottesville, Virginia.
The film addresses all the signature O鈥橩eeffe motifs: the famous flowers, the charcoal drawings, the New York skyscrapers and the near abstractions.
鈥淧eople are so stuck on the flowers,鈥� Wagner said. 鈥淭hey never realized the subject matter is much more diverse.鈥�
The artist grew up on a farm near Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. By the time she graduated from high school in 1905, O鈥橩eeffe had determined to make her way as an artist. She studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and at New York鈥檚 Art Students League, where she learned the techniques of traditional painting. The direction of her artistic practice shifted dramatically four years later when she studied the revolutionary ideas of Arthur Wesley Dow. Dow offered O鈥橩eeffe an alternative to established ways of thinking about art. She experimented with abstraction for two years while she taught art in West Texas. Through a series of abstract charcoal drawings, she developed a personal language to better express her feelings and ideas.
O鈥橩eeffe mailed some of these drawings to a friend in New York City. Her friend showed them to Alfred Stieglitz, the art dealer and renowned photographer, who would eventually become O鈥橩eeffe鈥檚 husband. He was the first to exhibit her work in 1916.
An Emmy- and Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker, Wagner 鈥渟tumbled into鈥� O鈥橩eeffe鈥檚 world when he saw the 2018 鈥淥鈥橩eeffe in Charlottesville鈥� exhibit at the University of Virginia.
O鈥橩eeffe studied at UVA every summer from 1912 to 1916, taking courses designed for art teachers and teaching some classes of her own.
When she arrived, she was nearly ready to give up on art, lacking inspiration and struggling to work through her family鈥檚 financial struggles and, later, her mother鈥檚 death. The family had sold their Wisconsin farm and moved to Virginia.
鈥淕eorgia鈥檚 father had a lot of problems with his business,鈥� Wagner said. 鈥淗er mother had T.B. (tuberculosis).
鈥淗er sisters were signed up for an art class and they were crazy about the instructor and begged Georgia to take the class,鈥� Wagner added.
O鈥橩eeffe had already taken classes at the Art Institute of Chicago and New York鈥檚 Art Students League. Her parents could not afford to send her back.
After much persuasion, O鈥橩eeffe relented and attended her sisters鈥� class. She also studied the artistic ideas of Arthur Wesley Dow. Dow taught that rather than copying nature, artists should create through line, mass and color.
鈥淪he was blown away,鈥� Wagner said. 鈥淚t pointed her in a new direction.
鈥淚t became all about what you do with the surface of the painting,鈥� Wagner said. 鈥淚t opened the door to abstraction.鈥�
In early June 1918, O鈥橩eeffe moved to New York from Texas after Stieglitz promised he would provide her with a quiet studio where she could paint. Within a month, he took the first of many nude photographs of her at his family鈥檚 apartment while his wife Emmy was away.
鈥淪tieglitz promoted the sexual interpretation鈥� of her flower paintings, Wagner said. O鈥橩eeffe hated the marketing.
鈥淗e was the central force behind the modern art world,鈥� Wagner said. 鈥淗e was bringing Picasso and C茅zanne to New York.鈥�
In New York, O鈥橩eeffe painted the buildings, including the Shelton Hotel, where she and Stieglitz lived from 1925 to 1936. At the time, it was the tallest building in the world.
The couple married in Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1924.
鈥淪he didn鈥檛 want to marry him in the first place,鈥� Wagner said. 鈥淗e was kind of a 19th century man.鈥�
When the couple came to the ferry to return to New York, 鈥淭hey hit a telephone pole and she injured her leg,鈥� Wagner said. 鈥淪he says, 鈥業 almost broke my leg the day we got married.鈥� She never considered changing her name.鈥�
鈥淗e was a brilliant guy,鈥� Wagner said of Stieglitz, adding, but 鈥渉e was a classic male jerk. He was 24 years older, and he was famous. The mentorship was all tangled with romance.鈥�
Wagner speculated that O鈥橩eeffe鈥檚 enlarged flower paintings grew from her association with Stieglitz and his cadre of photographers.
鈥淭hey were doing close-ups,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou abstracted it. She was thinking along these same lines and placed her eye right into the flower.鈥�
In the summer of 1929, O鈥橩eeffe made the first of many trips to northern New Mexico. The stark landscape, and Native American and Hispanic cultures of the region inspired a new direction in her art. For the next two decades, she spent most summers living and working in New Mexico. She made the state her permanent home in 1949, three years after Stieglitz鈥檚 death.
Although Stieglitz鈥檚 affair with another woman had initially spurred the move, O鈥橩eeffe had always loved the West, Wagner said.
When she visited Mabel Dodge Luhan in Taos, she discovered a hotbed of creative expression.
鈥淪he says, 鈥業鈥檓 finding myself here,鈥欌�� Wagner said. 鈥淵ou can see this is an incredible turning point in her life.鈥�
O鈥橩eeffe died in Santa Fe in 1986 at the age of 98.
Her life 鈥渙pens a door on women in America and art in America,鈥� Wagner said. 鈥淗er life spans almost the entire century.
鈥淪he did not consider herself to be a great woman artist but a great artist.鈥�
Wagner is taking the documentary to the Cannes Film Festival in May 2025 to seek a distributor.
See for more information.
