The Desert Flower Blooms-Joan Allen’s “Georgia O’Keeffe” (  )-A Film 

Review 

DVD Review

By Sam Lowell

Georgia O’Keeffe, starring Joan Allan, Jeremy Irons,

No question from a very early age I loved to look at the great 20^th century artist Georgia O'Keeffe's works where possible including a visit to the Ghost Ranch out in New Mexico to get a first-hand view of what was driving her-especially her use of color. Hell, I even usually by some kind of Georgia O’Keeffe calendar each year and if that isn’t love what is. Speaking of love the film under review simply but properly titled Georgia O’Keeffe (as opposed to say O’Keeffe and Stieglitz or some variation on that idea) has one of its important strands beside a look at what drove her to her art was the seminal relationship for good or evil between her and Alfred Stieglitz –her most serious promoter and a great creative force as a photographer and exhibitor of modern art in his own right.     

Almost from the first frame of the film we are entwined in the obvious attraction that this pair, Alfred and Georgia had for each other  sexually as well as artistically (although they called each other Miss O’Keeffe and Mister Stieglitz more often than one would think proper given that they were married but maybe the formalities were more carefully observed then). That attraction in the end would provide many emotional distraught moments for Ms. O’Keeffe as her Alfred proved to be another of those rascals who couldn’t keep away from the woman.

The relationship beyond Steiglitz’s overwhelming desire to see Georgia take her place as a great artist of the 20^th century was a roller coaster ride from the beginning since Alfred was very much married, although clearly unhappily. And also via the great modern art promotor Mabel Dodge we know that woman fell in love with him-and he responded for a while. That looked to be Georgia’s fate-another protégé of the great creative force. At some moments in the film it looked like she would never break from his spell (and whatever else he thought of her as an artist he wanted her under that spell) and break out to be her own artistic force creating some of the most primordially beautiful paintings ever produced.        

But break she did showing a very important assertive streak that was not apparent at the start. Of course the painful cause that broke the camel’s back was Stieglitz’s infidelity with heiress to the Sears fortune. That and his unwillingness to have a child with her (allegedly to avoid distracting her from her life-force art) tore her apart for a while-a long while. Heading to the rough and ready West, heading to the sullen beauty of New Mexico saved her sanity-and drove her art to another level. The great question posed by the film and posed by O’Keeffe herself was how much was her art driven by Stieglitz’s ambitions and her own. My guess is in the end it was her own. See the film and figure that one out for yourself.