ART CHRONICLE
39
exhibition-rooms is to discover a world where everything is digested and
understood. There are no 'cocktails',
no quickly-shaken mixtures of
alien styles,-a trend that has become the bane of American art. And
thecoldness that was once attributed to you seems to have vanished now.
Fewof the enduring monuments from any period have been ingratiating
at the start. The supreme achievements often "refuse" the spectator and
he is forced to try again. So it is that when your world is finally broken
into, there is no trace of vulgarity, for there had never been disturbing
inducements to attract the casual eye. You present the quality we need
mosttoday if we can withstand the shocks with which the artist is being
continually bombarded.
To Georgia O·'Keeffe, An American Place:
I could have foretold, Miss O'Keeffe, that this would happen to you.
If you had asked me years ago I could have told you; and now I will
tellit all even though you do not ask me.
You were deluded from the beginning, Miss O'Keeffe. Legend has
it that you emerged as a school-teacher from Texas. Forbes Watson
hasreferred in
The Arts
to later legendary times "when Miss Georgia
O'Keeffewas the prettiest young lady student at the League." You next
appeared as a full-fledged painter, and among dangerous surroundings.
The subject-matter in your first pictures-the gigantic flowers-was
arrestingto begin with; but from the start your limitations were plain.
Youcould ingratiate with an image,. but the art of painting itself, the
necessarytechnical equipment,
did not come naturally to your fingers.
Thiscould have been overcome, as many great artists have overcome it,
had you only understood.
But you had been deluded. You felt that
everythingyou touched was sensational and "artistic," whereas in reality
there was only the sign-painter's slimy technique.
Influential people,
whoare usually insensitive to inner distinction, said that your work was
good;they told others it was good; and the future was yours.
Yet how soon you were to exhaust your repertoire! Your flower-
pictures grew tiresome; even the sexual over-meanings became sticky
and dull. I can remember the brief cheer that arose from your group
whenyou painted a sky-scraper by night. You further expanded your
subject-matter to include bones, barns, and scenery in the West. And
alI the time your lack of technical equipment and your lack of taste
laynaked and raw.
During the last year you have tried to loosen your technique. But
only a sure foundation can permit flexibility. You had ignored the
aesthetic structure itself while fiddling around with the eaves. Your
formscould not expect to achieve realization. They blow into gas at the
high-lights, like the exhibits in a summer "art-colony." Only the aca-
demiccritics can now applaud you, and the columnists who write for
