Women artists have long used clothes (and their homes) as an extension of their artistic expression. I just got back from Mexico City where there is a new exhibition of recently discovered clothes and accessories of Frida Kahlo at her Casa Azul house. While Frida’s clothes were feminine and colorful (based on specific Mexican traditional dress) and used to distract from her withered leg and torso often wrapped in a corset or cast, Georgia O’Keeffe was minimalist to the extreme.
A new exhibit, Georgia O’Keeffe: Living Modern which opens at the Brooklyn Museum this Friday, March 3rd, is a look at how the artist used clothing and posing for the camera to help define her mythic persona. Like Kahlo, whose colorful house filled with her and Diego Rivera’s collection of traditional Mexican crafts, was an extension of her aesthetic, O’Keeffe’s home in Abiquiu (which I recently visited for a second time in the fall) is the same–a serene uncluttered space with scattered collections of rocks and other earthly organic treasures.
So many designers today are inspired by O’Keeffe, who regularly appears in many an Instagram feed, this exhibit might further fuel their interest in her simple, Southwestern aesthetic. Note: This is a timed ticket admission; you might want to order them soon so you don’t miss out.
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