Georgia O'Keeffe: The Poetry of Things exhibition records

The Phillips Collection's 1999 exhibition, "Georgia O’Keeffe: The Poetry of Things," examines O'Keeffe's personal relationship to "things" as reflected in the objects she collected and used in her still life paintings throughout her career. As quoted by curator Beth Turner in the introduction to the exhibition catalogue, O'Keeffe herself said, "Nothing is less real than realism. It is only by selection, by elimination, by emphasis that we get at the real meaning of things."

These curatorial records were collected and created in the course of researching, planning and executing the exhibition and its catalogue.

The exhibition opened at The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., on April 17, 1999 and continued until July 18, 1999. It then traveled to three other venues: The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico, from August 7 through October 17, 1999; the Dallas Museum of Art in Dallas, Texas, from November 7, 1999 through January 30, 2000; and finally, to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor from February 19 through May 14, 2000.

The primary creators of the catalogue and exhibition planning records in this collection were Beth Turner, Senior Curator and Elsa Smithgall, Associate Curator.

The collection consists of the research, catalogue, and exhibition planning files of both curators, interfiled. These records consist of research materials assembled, catalogue, and exhibition planning and execution documents such as legal and financial records, lender files (restricted), schedules, installation design (including drawings by Val E. Lewton), and checklists (restricted).

An extensive amount of research was conducted for this exhibition, examining and photocopying a large body of O'Keeffe's correspondence at Yale University's Beinecke Library, the New York Public Library, and the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. The Beinecke correspondence ranges from 1907 through 1962, the bulk of which dates from the 1920s and 1930s. Significant and/or frequent correspondents are Alfred Stieglitz, Elizabeth Stieglitz Davidson, Sherwood Anderson, Dorothy Brett, Arthur Dove, Arthur Dow, Marsden Hartley, Mabel Dodge Luhan, Henry McBride, Lewis Mumford, Ida O'Keeffe and John Vanderpoel. The New York Public Library correspondence is between O'Keeffe and Mitchell Kennerly. The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation correspondence consists of letters between O'Keeffe and Wright. In addition, there are photocopies of correspondence dating from 1916 to 1954 from various other sources; the bulk of this correspondence dates from the 1920s and 1930s. Alfred Stieglitz, Henry McBride, Anita Pollitzer, and Ettie Stettheimer are among the most frequent correspondents. Published correspondence from 1915 to 1955 includes correspondents Henry McBride, Duncan Phillips, Anita Pollitzer, Ettie Stettheimer, and Alfred Stieglitz.

Secondary source research materials consist of photocopies of reviews, articles, and portions of books written about artistic movements and about O'Keeffe's life and work and those who influenced her. Included is information on Ezra Pound, Arthur Dow, Arthur Dove, Ernest Fenollosa, and the Baha'i Faith. A central focus is the influence of Asian Art on O'Keeffe's work, particularly the role played by her teacher Arthur Wesley Dow and noted Asian scholar Ernest Fenollosa.

Object research files include images and draft descriptions, arranged by object type (e.g., bones, flowers). The catalogue series records include copies of images (photographs and artworks), object research, legal material (restricted), budgets (restricted), and funding records, checklists (restricted), correspondence (correspondents of note are Barbara Buhler Lynes, author of the O'Keeffe catalogue raisonné and curator at the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, and Barney Ebsworth), administrative records such as specifications and schedules, audio and wall text, and loan requests, responses, and contracts.