The 2010 drama film Georgia O’Keeffe conveys a story about a young, 20-year-old American artist and the dramatic development of her relationship with a New York photographer, Alfred Stieglitz. Although this over dramatized turbulent relationship ends up overshadowing the physical art and the historical side of the film, it provides a message of tough love and emotion being the prime motivation and driving force behind both O’Keeffe’s paintings and Stieglitz’s photography careers
The movie begins with a calming montage of Georgia O’Keeffe painting with several of her own artworks fading in and out to calming music, with the overlay of her voice explaining the meaning behind her paintings. By including this opening scene, the movie provides the viewer with an understanding of Georgia O’Keeffe’s philosophical values as a painter and provides a foundational knowledge of the effect her lover, Alfred Stieglitz, will have on her artworks and confidence. In the movie, Georgia O’Keeffe requests that her works be taken down from an exhibition, as she is clearly not happy with any of her paintings. However, Alfred Stieglitz declines, defending her work, as he believes she is the definition of pure “raw intuitive talent.” In this scene especially, the movie does a powerful job of depicting Georgia O’Keeffe as a typical twentieth-century woman artist; having the talent, but lacking the confidence to go anywhere with it, as men dominated this time in history. This theme is very powerful, especially in today’s world as it makes it easy for viewers and young female artists to relate to O’Keeffe’s situation and lack of confidence and her works.
As Stieglitz and O’Keeffe begin to live their life, O’Keeffe’s painting career benefits from Stieglitz’s confidence boost, and Stieglitz’s photography career continues to benefit from the new-found feminine inspiration O’Keeffe gives him. This mutual relationship gives off a consistent effect in respect to the theme of the film. By both parties benefiting from each other, it brings into focus the idea of love and emotion being the ultimate driving force and backbone of these artists. This is beneficial to the film, as the theme stays consistent with the dramatic actions of the characters. When O’Keeffe refuses to come back to Stieglitz after he was caught cheating, Stieglitz has a sobbing episode and a mere heart attack on the steps of his house. Although this part also seems to be a little elongated and overdramatized, I believe it was also still a powerful decision of the moviemakers in order to further emphasize the overall message of the ups and downs of love being the prime motivation behind these two artists’ works.
Although Stieglitz builds O’Keeffe’s confidence, as she becomes more famous Stieglitz becomes more controlling with the relationship and O’Keeffe’s progress as a painter, and the two quickly become turbulent as Stieglitz exhibits the nude pictures he took of O’Keeffe to his viewers in New York. Spotlights and heavy music make this confrontation scene slightly overdramatic, as the narrator explains how after her nude photographs are seen by New York, she becomes famous and people start to buy her work for her name, not her talent. With this scene comes many questions concerning if that is how O’Keeffe really wants her own artwork to be seen and appreciated. This scene makes the viewer aware of O’Keeffe’s contradictory attitude towards her fame coming from Stieglitz’s pictures, adding to the dramatic feeling of the movie and staying consistent with the film’s message of tough love and emotion as artistical motivation. This is an important aspect of the film, as it not only portrays the development of O’Keeffe’s character and career but explains how people began to appreciate the femininity seen within her works, as the film’s narrator states “the essence of every woman is within every stroke she makes, every color she chooses.” As her flower paintings fade in and out of this scene, the narrators continue to highlight the power of her artistic femininity seen on the canvas, bringing to focus her clear, smooth brush strokes and soft but complementary color choices. This is one of the few points in the movie where her actual work is seen, however, the timing of it was powerful and appropriate in order to explain to the viewer these feminine aspects that caught the eye of Stieglitz and the rest of New York.
As an interpretation of the real happenings between the artists O’Keeffe and Stieglitz, the film portrayed their relationship from a great point of view in the sense that it shows both the emotions of O’Keeffe and Stieglitz as their relation turns turbulent. In conclusion, the entire storyline of the film itself was slightly distracting from the physical made art of O’Keeffe, however the overdramatizing of her relationship through the plot, and film making decisions of including spotlights and heavy music, proved to be totally necessary as it provides insight to the troubled love and emotion behind her works.
