Illumination The Paintings of Georgia O’Keeffe, Agnes Pelton, Agnes Martin, and Florence Miller Pierce Illumination The Paintings of Georgia O’Keeffe, Agnes Pelton, Agnes Martin, and Florence Miller Pierce Karen Moss With essays by Timothy Robert Rodgers Sharyn R. Udall Michael Zakian Orange County Museum of Art 7 Foreword Dennis Szakacs 11 Preface Karen Moss 15 Art and Life Illuminated: Georgia O’Keeffe and Agnes Pelton, Agnes Martin and Florence Miller Pierce Karen Moss 51 O’Keeffe and Pelton: Releasing the Imagination’s Natural and Mystical Impulses Sharyn R. Udall 69 Agnes Pelton and Georgia O’Keeffe: The Window and the Wall Michael Zakian 89 Mapping an Internal World: The Art of Agnes Martin and Florence Miller Pierce Timothy Robert Rodgers 103 Plates 163 Biographical Chronologies Stacie Martinez 178 Selected Bibliography 182 List of Works in the Exhibition 186 Lenders to the Exhibition 187 Contributors 190 Index Foreword Illumination: The Paintings of Georgia O’Keeffe, Agnes Pelton, Agnes Martin, and Florence Miller Pierce is the first exhibition to bring together these extraordinary American artists. O’Keeffe (1887–1986) and Pelton (1881–1961) were born six years apart in the 1880s, while Martin (1912–2004) and Pierce (1918–2007) were born six years apart in the 1910s. Illumination sheds new light on the two groups of con- temporaries and on the development of American art from one generation to the next during a pivotal time in art history. While Martin and O’Keeffe became icons of modern art during their long lifetimes, both Pelton and Pierce are only now beginning to receive the wider recognition they deserve. Illumination places the work of these two artists into the context that it merits and, in so doing, provides fresh insights into the work of their more famous counterparts. Just as Illumination represents the unique visions of these four stellar painters, it also reveals the insight and intelligence of Karen Moss, the Orange County Museum of Art’s deputy director for exhibitions and programs. Karen initiated this exhibition and brought it to fruition with assistance from her colleagues in the curatorial department. Many thanks to Anna Brouwer, publications manager, and Gina Conway, curatorial associate, for their diligent work on both the exhibition and this publication. I must also acknowledge Anna-Marie Sanchez, exhibitions and collections manager, for undertaking the huge task of overseeing loans, shipping, and registration, and managing the exhibition tour. Additional thanks to Curator Sarah Bancroft; former Research Associate Carol Cheh, for her key contributions in the early phases of this project; and Stacie Martinez, graduate intern, for her work on the biographical chronologies. For their exceptional work on the complicated installation, I extend thanks to Director of Operations Albert Lopez, Jr., and the entire museum crew. 7 Special thanks are also due to all the other OCMA staff who worked on this It is with tremendous pleasure that we present eighty works drawn from some ambitious exhibition: Kristine Bowen, director of education; Jenni Stenson, school of the most prominent public and private collections in the United States. We owe and tour programs manager; Andrea Dominguez, studio arts and classroom manager; our sincerest gratitude to the many museums and individual collectors who so Kelly Bishop, education and public programs coordinator; and Christopher Hinger, graciously agreed to lend these valuable works to the exhibition. Their names are tour coordinator, for their work on the public programs and school tours that are an listed on page 186. integral part of Illumination. Following its premiere at the Orange County Museum of Art, Illumination Chivan Wang, director of communications, handled the press for the exhibition will embark on a national tour. I would like to thank our colleagues at the other and its related programs, while Amanda Conley was responsible for advertising and museums participating in the exhibition tour: Jan Driesbach, director, and Will marketing coordination. Patricia Falzon, director of development, and Dawn Mori, South, chief curator, at the Dayton Art Institute; Susan Sterling, director, and associate director of development, were integral to the fund-raising for the exhi- Jordana Pomeroy, chief curator, at the National Museum of Women in the Arts; bition, while development staff Kristen Sweetland and Darcy Ruesch ably assisted and William J. Chiego, director, and René Paul Barilleaux, chief curator, at the with special events. Glenn Peters, deputy director for administration; Paulette McNay Art Museum. Gibson, director of finance; and Kelly Smith, accounting manager, oversaw the many fiscal matters related to the exhibition. Dennis Szakacs, Director This beautiful publication embodies the efforts of many people. First, I Orange County Museum of Art would like to offer sincere appreciation to the art historians who contributed insightful essays: Timothy Robert Rodgers, chief curator of the New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe; Sharyn Udall, independent curator and writer; and Michael Zakian, director of the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art at Pepperdine University, Malibu. I also thank Karen Jacobson, editor, for her professionalism and astute work. Thanks are also due our copublisher, Merrell, and its remarkable staff in London: Nicola Bailey, Claire Chandler, Hugh Merrell, Alenka Oblak, and Lucy Smith. I would like to extend my appreciation to the individual donors who provided generous support for this exhibition: Jayne Murrel, Pam and Jim Muzzy, Barbara and Victor Klein, and Michael D. Ray. In addition, I would like to thank The Judith Rothschild Foundation for its support. Many thanks must also go to the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, the Estate of Agnes Martin, and the Estate of Florence Miller Pierce for their cooperation and support for this exhibition and publication. Crucial assistance was provided by Barbara Buhler Lynes, director, and Agapita Judy Lopez, historic properties and rights and reproductions manager, at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum; Joe Baptista and Heather Palmer of PaceWildenstein; and Charlotte Jackson and Chris Jones of Charlotte Jackson Fine Art. Others who helped during the research phase of this exhibition include Carolyn Tilton Cunningham; Shelley Simms and Chip Ware at the Jonson Gallery, University of New Mexico; Merry Scully and Joseph Traugott at the New Mexico Museum of Art; and Nancy Strow Sheley, California State University, Long Beach. 8 9 Preface In 2005, while working on the exhibition California Modern, an installation of works of modern art from the Orange County Museum of Art’s collection, I became intrigued by the work of Agnes Pelton, particularly The Guide (1929; fig. 46), a visionary celestial landscape with a star-filled night sky. Further research into the career of this striking but relatively unknown Californian Modernist revealed that, although Pelton was one of the few women artists selected to exhibit in the historic New York Armory Show of 1913, there had been only one major exhibition of her work, Agnes Pelton: Poet of Nature, curated by Michael Zakian at the Palm Springs Desert Museum in 1995. In reviewing the rather limited literature on Pelton, I began to notice several articles that compared her work with that of her more celebrated contemporary, Georgia O’Keeffe.1 These references piqued my interest and encouraged me to explore the idea of an exhibition that would examine the similarities and differences between these two important Modernist painters. Subsequently, when I traveled to New Mexico to view Pelton’s work at the Jonson Gallery at the University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque, I had the opportunity to see the transcendental and monochrome paintings of Florence Miller Pierce for the first time. Pierce was well known among her peers, particularly in New Mexico, but, like Pelton, was relatively unknown until quite recently. After doing further research on Pierce, I became aware of the exhibition In Pursuit of Perfection, curated by Timothy Robert Rodgers at the New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, in 2004, which included works by both Pierce and Agnes Martin. Once again, I thought that an in-depth comparison between these two artists—one well known, the other underrecognized—would be fascinating. Ultimately, rather than organizing an exhibition devoted to O’Keeffe and Pelton, I decided that it would be more interesting to examine the paintings of two pairs of artists from two successive generations that together span an entire century. This curatorial strategy provides an opportunity for dyadic comparisons between Fig. 1 Agnes Pelton, Illumination, 1930 Oil on canvas, 451/2 x 27 in. (115.6 x 68.6 cm) Collection of Ruth and Ben Hammett, Palo Alto, California 10 11 O’Keeffe/Pelton and Martin/Pierce, as well as a chance to explore the relationships Notes among a quartet of painters whose remarkable works display both striking affinities 1. The specific references to Pelton and Her Due,” Los Angeles Times, March 19, and subtle differences. O’Keeffe include: Ann Japenga, “Agnes 1995. Knight also proclaimed, “Eat your Illumination: The Paintings of Georgia O’Keeffe, Agnes Pelton, Agnes Martin, Pelton: California’s O’Keeffe,” Palm Springs heart out, Georgia O’Keeffe!” (“Best and Life, Winter–Spring 2007, Worst of 1995,” Artforum 34 [December 1, and Florence Miller Pierce surveys the careers of these four American women artists http://www.palmspringslife.com/media/Palm 1995]: 59). whose work spans virtually the entire twentieth century. O’Keeffe and Pelton -Springs-Life/Art-Culture/Winter-Spring- 2. Michael Zakian, Agnes Pelton: Poet of Nature, created distinctive Modernist paintings using lush palettes and organic forms, in 2007/Californias-O’Keeffe/; Christopher exhib. cat. (Palm Springs ca: Palm Springs Knight, “Forget Georgia, Agnes Finally Gets Desert Museum, 1995), 56. styles ranging from realism to pure abstraction, while Martin and Pierce produced contemporary minimal and monochromatic works of sublime simplicity. While much has been published on the celebrated careers of both O’Keeffe and Martin, Pelton and Pierce are admired by art historians and other artists but are still underrecognized.