‘A Circle that Nothing Can Break’ Opens at The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
Exhibition Explores Significance of Circles in O’Keeffe’s Practice
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE–November 19, 2024–(Santa Fe, NM)–The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum’s latest exhibition puts into focus a subject that could easily be overlooked in the artist’s career—the circle. Opening Monday, November 11, 2024, A Circle that Nothing Can Break delves into this vitally significant theme in Georgia O’Keeffe’s life and artistic career.
Curatorial Assistant Yaritza Martinez Pule makes her solo curatorial debut with A Circle that Nothing Can Break and notes that the works are completed in complicated eras of O’Keeffe’s life. Circles appear early in O’Keeffe’s practice as an artist and reappears as she is inspired by her surroundings and affected by significant events in her life.
“I became fascinated by O’Keeffe’s depiction of circles early in my time at the Museum,” Pule said. “I saw a few works that struck me and from my research thought they were from early in O’Keeffe’s career. When I found out they were from the later years of her life, I wanted to learn more.”
Pule believes that the round shapes appear in O’Keeffe’s art when she is experiencing great change or challenging times in her life. Circles and spirals appeared repeatedly in O’Keeffe’s drawings in the 1910s as she was navigating her path to becoming a professional artist and forging her new career under the wings of Alfred Stieglitz, whom she would later marry, in the buzzingly energetic New York City art scene. However, the motif all but disappeared from her work in 1946, the year Stieglitz died. In the 1970s, near the close of her career, she returned to the theme, and even repeated the color palettes of soft greens and pinks from her early works.
“In many ways, the circular motion and flow of these images suggest moments of self-reflection, almost a ritual of habit,” Pule said. “Most of these works also appear in calming hues of pinks, greens, and blues. Which again suggests these works are intimately expressive.
A Circle that Nothing Break will be on view until October 31, 2025. See it free! Join the Museum for First Friday on December 6, 2024. Admission fees are waived all day for New Mexico residents and for everyone from 5 to 7 PM on the first Friday of every month. Spotlight tours of the exhibition will be available with art activities at no cost. For more information, visit gokm.org.
—
For media inquiries, contact:
Renee Lucero | Public Relations Manager, Georgia O’Keeffe Museum 505-946-1063
Image credits: Georgia O’Keeffe. Green Lines and Pink, 1919. Oil on canvas, 18 x 10 inches. Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. Gift of The Burnett Foundation and The Georgia O’Keeffe Foundation. © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. [1997.5.7]
ABOUT THE GEORGIA O’KEEFFE MUSEUM: Since 1997, the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum celebrates the art, life, and independent spirit of Georgia O’Keeffe. Located in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where Georgia O’Keeffe lived the final decades of her life, the O’Keeffe has sites and experiences in two historic destinations, Santa Fe and Abiquiú. For more information, please visit gokm.org
