How Georgia O’Keeffe inspired Calvin Klein, Joan Didion and more
As Georgia O’Keeffe: Visions of Hawaii opens at The New York Botanical Garden, we take a look at the artists and designers inspired by the ‘Mother of American Modernism’, a woman celebrated for her feminist perspectives as well as her iconic artwork. By GEORGIA SIMMONDS
Calvin Klein
Back in 1983, Calvin Klein told The New York Times that he had a Georgia O’Keeffe painting (one featuring a white flower and a bone) on his bedroom wall. “It’s the last thing I see at night, the first thing I see when I wake up.” His admiration for the artist was so immense that he described visiting her desert ranch as being “like a religious experience”. A year later, with O’Keeffe’s permission, Klein chose to be shot by Bruce Weber at the artist’s famous Ghost Ranch, modeling his own menswear for an upcoming campaign.
Yayoi Kusama
Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama described Georgia O’Keeffe as her first and greatest benefactor: “It was because of her that I was able to go to the USA and begin my artistic career in earnest,” Kusama told Tate Etc. in 2016, recounting a story of how O’Keeffe responded with great kindness to a letter she had sent her, prompting Kusama to move to America. Later, O’Keeffe invited Kusama to stay at her New Mexico ranch, concerned that New York City was a tough place to live. “She possessed a certain genuine and deeply embedded spirituality,” said Kusama. “It is largely to this that I attribute her greatness.”
Joan Didion
Known chiefly for her razor-sharp literary portraits of America in the ’60s and ’70s, Didion included an essay paying tribute to O’Keeffe in her 1979 collection, The White Album. “She is simply hard, a straight shooter, a woman clean of received wisdom and open to what she sees,” wrote Didion of the American icon – highlighting the artist’s independence and progressiveness as qualities she greatly admired.
“She is simply hard, a straight shooter, a woman clean of received wisdom and open to what she sees
”JOAN DIDION
Maria Grazia Chiuri
Maria Grazia Chiuri’s first Cruise collection at Christian Dior was loaded with references to Georgia O’Keeffe – nearly every look was styled with the artist’s signature wide-brimmed hat. In part, it was the Brooklyn Museum’s 2017 show, Living Modern, that helped ignite Chiuri’s fascination with who O’Keeffe was as a woman, beyond the famous canvases she produced. “I like to think of Georgia O’Keeffe as this shamanistic woman, as she would go around in the desert in a kimono-like coat,” Chiuri said post-show.
Judy Chicago
Judy Chicago’s famous feminist artwork, The Dinner Party, which was first exhibited in San Francisco in 1979, comprises 39 place settings – an ode to the brilliant women throughout history who inspired and empowered Chicago, starting with the Primordial Goddess and finishing with Georgia O’Keeffe. Talking about O’Keefe’s uniqueness, Chicago told Tate Etc.: “She was a pioneer in translating a female sense of self into visual form.”
Georgia O’Keeffe: Visions of Hawaii is at The New York Botanical Garden from May 19 until October 28, 2018
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