Santa Fe exhibit paints a different picture of O'Keeffe

SANTA FE — All art should be able to speak for itself -- and certainly no art speaks for itself so eloquently and exactly as that of New Mexico's (and the world's) Georgia O'Keeffe.

But there is always an enhancing effect upon our experience of art to be had in our learning something of the artist, and of the artist's place and subject -- what the art scholars call "contextualizing" the artist.

Though it in no way alters our perception of his genius, seeing the sun-hot fields of the south of France adds something to our appreciation of the burning landscapes of Vincent Van Gogh and the keen madness with which he portrayed them.

Walk the rough Maine seacoast of Winslow Homer or the gentle shore of Thomas Eakins' Schuylkill River to the same good effect. Ponder Picasso's portraits of women -- especially those of Sara Murphy and Nusch Eluard, who spurned his advances -- in full knowledge of his misogyny.

An afternoon's sit here gazing at the Jemez Mountains will tell you quite a bit about the perceptions and achievement of O'Keeffe in this place she so devotedly loved.

O'Keeffein photos

But Santa Fe's Georgia O'Keeffe Museum (217 Johnson St., telephone 505-946-1050, Web site www.okeeffemuseum.org) has just now done something even more illuminating -- examining her life, her work and, most important, her place, through the eyes and lens of her close and longtime friend, photographer Todd Webb (1905-2000), who produced a glorious collection of photos of her and her surroundings at her Ghost Ranch and Abiquiu, N.M., houses between 1955 and 1981.

"We try at this museum to contextualize O'Keeffe," said curator Barbara Buhler Lynes. "She is perceived as a loner, a severe figure and self-made person. All that's true, but she was much more."

The show, "Georgia O'Keeffe: The Artist's Landscape," on view through Sept. 21, juxtaposes a wide selection of her works with Webb's photos of her, her houses, her studio and the land and the objects she loved and painted.

The immediate impression one gets is of intense connection -- between the art and the photographs, between the two friends, between the artist and the world she chose for herself.

Capturing the personna