Experiments in Installation: Part IV

Posted on October 10, 2012 by Experiment Station

Hornet’s Nest with Georgia O’Keeffe’s Red Hills, Lake George (1927) in the Main Gallery. Photo: Joshua Navarro

This is the fourth in a series of posts from University of Virginia graduate student Tom Winters on his class’s experience installing works from our permanent collection in the Main Gallery. See parts one, two, and three.

Exciting new developments have taken place in our installation of the Main Gallery. Our hornet’s nest has now been suitably be-pedestaled and installed in one of the corners of our space, following deliberation over possible locations with Professor Turner last week. Now appropriately objectified and labeled, the hornet’s nest will henceforth be referred to as Hornet’s Nest. We are also delighted that Georgia O’Keeffe’s Red Hills, Lake George (1927) has joined our display. It replaces a Stuart Davis painting, though he is still represented with two other works in the gallery. O’Keeffe’s (artistic) relationship with Alfred Stieglitz–one of our main protagonists–makes her work an obvious inclusion in our ensemble; its quality makes it near essential.

Tom Winters, UVa graduate student, Department of Art History

Arthur Dove’s Rain or Snow (1943) with Hornet’s Nest in the Main Gallery. Photo: Joshua Navarro

Hornet’s Nest, up close. Photo: Joshua Navarro

Experiments in Installation: Part III

Posted on October 4, 2012 by Experiment Station

This is the third in a series of posts from University of Virginia graduate student Tom Winters on his class’s experience installing works from our permanent collection in the Main Gallery. See parts one and two.

Meryl Goldstein holds the hornet’s nest. Photo: Tom Winters

Alfred Stieglitz. 291 – Picasso-Braque Exhibition. 1915. Platinum print. 19.4 x 24.4 cm (7 5/8 x 9 5/8 in.) Metropolitan Museum of Art, Alfred Stieglitz Collection, 1949.

Friday, September 14, our second meeting at The Phillips Collection, and the selected pieces are now all in place. However, one more object is set to enter the fray. Professor Turner has procured a hornet’s nest, similar to one seen in a photo of the 1915 Picasso-Braque exhibit at Stieglitz’s 291 Gallery. As we troop through the Phillips with a large hornet’s nest in a cardboard box, we are met with puzzlement and mild consternation from many of the museum’s staff. Professor’s Turner’s protestation that “It’s been cryogenically frozen!” is the catchphrase of the day. The nest is swiftly ushered to conservation. Perhaps hanging this somewhat bizarre object from the ceiling would be not be the best idea. Perhaps the objectification effect of a pedestal is required. We’ll see.

The class reviews their selections and decisions. Photo: Tom Winters

Tom Winters, UVa graduate student, Department of Art History

O’Keeffe and Stieglitz: a Doorstopper of Love Letters

Posted on July 13, 2011 by Sarah Osborne Bender

Alfred Stieglitz, photographer, patron, art dealer, and friend of Duncan Phillips, died on July 13, 1946.

Recently, the library was kindly given a copy of the newly published collection, My Faraway One: selected letters of Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz: Volume I, 1915-1933. A substantial book, it is merely a selection of the 25,000 pages these two artists wrote to each other. The book donor commented to our librarian that she found the frequency and specificity of the letters to sound almost like Twitter feeds, O’Keeffe and Stieglitz updating each other on nearly every waking moment of their days. A letter on page 513 begins, “My dearest Alfred . . . I had your two registered letters yesterday afternoon- also your telegram . . . ” Another references a previous letter of 40 pages! Editor Sarah Greenough, who has had a long scholarly relationship with both artists and knew O’Keeffe, has carefully presented these intimate materials according to O’Keeffe’s spare but direct wishes: “make it beautiful and keep it honest.” The book is widely available and on sale in the Phillips shop.