It's worth thinking about the new style in the visual arts around the time of Cather's novel. Georgia O'Keeffe, who would later come to fame depicting the American Southwest, began her career depicting the city in the mid 1920s.
How does her city depart from the earlier Ashcan artists? How can we start to put her work into conversation with Cather?
O’Keefe’s paintings differ from those of earlier artists in that they do not depict any specific individuals, but instead show a large view of a section of the city, with buildings as the main focus. Unlike artists such as Bellows, who painted the city with slightly blurry lines to depict the hum of human activity, O’Keefe’s art makes the city seem immense, and heartless, due to the use of straight lines, with few natural shapes and no people visible. This painting is also very dark, with black as the dominant shade. The few colored parts are windows of the buildings, which represent the variety of different people which these buildings hold. They appear lifeless at first but are actually teeming with life. There is one central, eye-shaped window, which makes it seem like the building is viewing us, giving us the feeling of being very small in comparison to a city. This ties into Cathe’s writing by creating a sense of isolation, which her novel’s protagonist struggles with. This painting also shows people’s ability to adapt to change, just like St. Peter is forced to do.
ReplyDeleteTowards the end of the Ashcan artists’ era, they were experimenting a lot with abstract art and “unclear” lines; similar to the staircase painting. Even with the city Ashcan painting we looked at in class, it was abstract and used minimal dark colors. However, here in Georgia O’Keefe painting there are definite boundaries. By this I mean that each building is its own entity, none of them are being blended together, like they were in Ashcan paintings. Also, O‘Keefe deviates from Ashcan painters through her use of color. While I agree with Sam that the predominant hue is black, I also believe that there is lightness to her painting that was not typically present in Ashcan paintings.
ReplyDeleteWhen first looking at this painting I was drawn to the top of the main building, with the light emanating from it. Immediately I thought of the Professor in his study. This building is the only main object being highlighted in this painting, it is isolated. As Sam mentioned above, the Professor is dealing with feelings of being isolated from his family. Though despite these feelings of loneliness and isolation the Professor still has a great deal to say, which I believe can be related to a burning fire within almost. The light coming from presumably off the street and cars below this main building resembles a fire as well, further connecting the Professor to this specific building.
- Megan B
Looking at the picture, O’Keefe’s art makes the city seem huge, and at the same time cruel and heartless, mostly due to the use of straight lines, with very few natural shapes and no people visible. It is a very dark piece of art that almost looks like a photograph taken at night. There seems to be a focus on the clock tower, rather than the buildings surrounding it. It is placed in the center of the piece of work, yet it is painted slightly on an angle, causing me to think there could be something wrong with the structure of the building, or an emphasis by O’Keefe to the fact that it is off center. This reminds me of the professor in The Professor’s House. He is a very dark individual. He contemplates suicide and gives up on his family and life in general. He is oddly self-centered, not focusing on the feelings of his family members, but purely focusing on his own interests and the work that Outland had done.
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