Aziz Art June 2016

New York
O'Keeffe had made some charcoal
drawings in late 1915 which she
had mailed from South Carolina to
Anita Pollitzer. Pollitzer took them
to Alfred Stieglitz at his 291
gallery early in 1916.
Stieglitz told Pollitzer that the
drawings were the "purest, finest,
sincerest things that had entered
291 in a long while", and that he
would like to show them. O'Keeffe
had first visited 291 in 1908,
but did not speak with Stieglitz
then, although she came to have
high regard for him and to know
him in early 1916, when she was in
New York at Teachers College. In
April 1916, he exhibited ten of her
drawings at 291. O'Keeffe knew
that Stieglitz was planning to
exhibit her work but he had not
told her when, and she was
surprised to learn that her work
was on view; she confronted
Stieglitz over the drawings but
agreed to let them remain on
exhibit. Stieglitz organized
O'Keeffe's first solo show at 291 in
April 1917, which included oil
paintings and watercolors
completed in Texas.
Stieglitz and O'Keeffe corresponded
frequently beginning in 1916 and,
in June 1918, she accepted his
invitation to move to New York to
devote all of her time to her work.
The two were deeply in love and,
shortly after her arrival, they began
living together, even though
Stieglitz was married and 23 years
her senior. That year, Stieglitz first
took O'Keeffe to his family home at
the village of Lake George in New
York's Adirondack Mountains, and
they spent part of every year there
until 1929, when O'Keeffe spent
the first of many summers painting
in New Mexico. In 1924, Stieglitz's
divorce was approved by a judge
and, within four months, he and
O'Keeffe married. It was a small,
private ceremony at John Marin's
house, and afterward the couple
went back home. There was no
reception, festivities, or
honeymoon. O'Keeffe said later
that they married in order to help
soothe the troubles of Stieglitz's
daughter Kitty who was being
treated in a sanatorium for
depression and hallucinations at
that time.