Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933)

OREL ART COLLEGE

‘NOTHING IS LESS REAL THAN REALISM’

GEORGIA O’KEEFFE, (1887-1986)

The long life of Georgia O’Keeffe can be divided into many periods.

She was a loner and a cultural icon, she was a beauty and a recluse with a weather-beaten face, and she was born on a farm…

She received her first art instruction from a local watercolourist. After her painting Dead Rabbit With Copper Pot won a prize she got a scholarship to study in New York. It was there that she visited for the first time the 291 gallery owned by Alfred Stieglitz.

In 1908 Georgia graduated from the School Of The Art Institute in Chicago… and stopped painting. She worked as a commercial artist and then as a teacher and said that the smell of turpentine made her sick. She started painting again only in 1912 after a class where she learned the innovative ideas of Arthur Wesley Dow.

1916 was a very important year for Georgia. She had met her future husband, the owner of the gallery 291 Alfred Stieglitz, and he fell in love first with her works and then with herself. Although Georgia was on the right side of thirty and Alfred Stieglitz on the wrong side of fifty and married, it was Love. They wrote letters to each other for two years, then Georgia came to New York and they started living together. They were officially married six years later in 1924 when Stieglitz had got divorce from his wife.

The couple spent their summers at Lake George with the Stieglitz family and friends. However, O’Keeffe needed her own place to be alone and in 1929 she set out to find it. As it turned out, the place was New Mexico where she spent some time every year and later bought a ranch. It was a wilddesert country with white sand, grey hills and a strong sun. She collectedrocks and bones from the desert floor and made them subjects in her work. She also went on camping trips, painting scenes from the desert, such as Ram's Head White Hollyhock and Little Hills. She also painted enlarged flowers and abstract things, such as Blue and Green Music.

At times the wind was so strong that it tore the canvas from the easel, at other times the sun was so hot she crawled under her car for shade... the sun also made her look older than she was. She wore baggy clothes and led the life of a recluse, driving long miles in her old Ford looking for scenes to paint.

In 1946 she received the news that Stieglitz was seriously ill and flew back to New York. She found him in a coma and was with him when he died.

Georgia buried his ashes at Lake George, spent the next three years in New York organizing his archives and moved permanently to New Mexico in 1949.

In 1972 O’Keeffe began to lose her eyesight so that she was left with only peripheral vision. She had to stop oil painting but continued to work in pencil and charcoaluntil 1984.

In 1973 a young potter Juan Hamilton came to her ranch house looking for work. She gave him a few odd jobs and soon hired him full time. He became her close friend, companion and business manager until her death. Hamilton taught O’Keefe to work with clay, and working with help, she produced clay pots and a series of works in watercolor.

O'Keeffe started losing her strength in her late 90s. She moved to Santa Fe in 1984, where she died on March 6, 1986, at the age of 98. In accordance with her wishes, her body was cremated and her ashes were scattered to the wind over the hills she had painted so often and loved so well.

Dead Rabbit With Copper Pot Мертвый кролик и медный сосуд

Ram's Head White Hollyhock and Little Hills Голова барана, белая шток-роза и небольшие холмы

O’Keeffe facts

ALFRED STIEGLITZ

I have always been a great believer in today. Most people live either in the past or in the future, so that they really never live at all. So many people are busy worrying about the future of art or society; they have no time to preserve what is. Utopia is in the moment. Not in some future time, some other place, but in the here and now, or else it is nowhere.

Alfred Stieglitz was born the first of the six children to Jewish-German

immigrants in 1864. Two of his brothers were twins so he never was part of their games and always wished for a twin of his own.

His father was a US army officer and very serious about the education of his son. He went to the best private school in America and, since the programme in American colleges was too easy for him, continued his studies in the more academic schools of his German homeland. There he spent a lot of his time on intellectual discussions, enjoyed $1200 pocket money every month and, most importantly, came across the leading German authorities on photography, which was to become his lifelong passion.

By the time he returned to the United States he already considered himself an artist with a camera and refused to do anything else.

His father bought him a small photography business, but Stieglitz demanded such highquality in the

production and paid his employee such highwages that the business rarely made a profit. About that time he bought a new kind of camera which didn’t require a tripod and made his two most famous photographs: "Winter, Fifth Avenue" and "The Terminal". He also began writing articles for photography magazines.

When he was twenty-nine, he married Emmeline Obermeyer, but as she never managed to become his twin, the couple lived separate lives under the sameroof. Instead, he devoted his time and energy to his own projects, such as New York Camera Club, Camera Work magazine, where he printed the works of Picasso and Matisse, the 291 gallery, where he exhibited the works of Rodin and, for the first time in America, exhibited photography as a form of art.

Stieglitz was a perfectionist, and it showed in every aspect of his magazine Camera Work. His quality standards were so high that when the originalprints didn’t arrive for an exhibition in Brussels, pages from the magazine were hunginstead, and the public didn’t know the difference. He also refused to let the smallest detail pass without his personal control, for example, he individually wrapped and mailed 35,000 copies of Camera Work in the course of its publication.

The year 1917 cut the biography of Alfred Stieglitz in two. He closed the gallery and the magazine and knew that his marriage was over. He had met the young painter Georgia O’Keeffe and had finally found his twin.

Their marriage had a special character, for, although the couple lived together most of the time, O’Keeffe also needed long periods of solitude when she was focusing on painting or creating. Stieglitz used the times she was away to concentrate on his photography and on his continued promotion of modern art.

The marriage worked this way until Stieglitz’ death in 1946. O’Keeffe was there with him when he died and spent the next three years organizing the work of perhaps the most important figure in the history of visual arts in America. Though certainly not the greatest artist America has ever produced, through his revolutionary roles – photographer, discoverer and promoter of other artists, collector, publisher and writer - he had a greater influence on American art than any other person.

True or false?

1. Alfred Stieglitz had a twin sister.

2. Originalprints by Alfred Stieglitz are worthover $ 1 000 000 now.

3. The Stieglitz family was very rich.

4. Alfred Stieglitz was a very lazy businessman and let his employee control everything about the business. However, he paid his employee very little wages.

5. The two most famous Stieglitz photographs are Ram’s Head White Hollyhock and Little Hills and Blue and Green Music.

6. Alfred Stieglitz was a perfectionist.

7. Alfred Stieglitz made his first wife individually wrap and mail twenty thousand copies of Camera Work.

8. All his life Stieglitz concentrated on only one thing: Photography and never did anything else.

Active Vocabulary

advertising agency рекламное агентство

although хотя

canvas холст

charcoal уголь

clay глина

collect собирать, подбирать, коллекционировать

commission заказывать художнику картины, скульптуры и т.д.

contain содержать

couple пара

desert пустыня

difference разница

discover открывать

divide делить, разделять

easel мольберт

employee наемный работник

exhibit, syn. display выставлять

exhibition выставка

hill холм, невысокая гора

however однако

hang (hung, hung) вешать

landscape пейзаж

lose (lost-lost) терять

manage справляться, удаваться, управлять

mention упоминать

nude обнаженная натура

original оригинальный, первоначальный

over над, более чем, be over заканчиваться

outgoing общительный, открытый

outstanding выдающийся

own владеть, собственный

page страница

pocket карман

print печатать, снимок, гравюра

private частный, личный

profit прибыль

promotе продвигать

publish издавать

rarely редко rare редкий

recluse затворник

require требовать(ся), нуждаться

rock камень, скала

(the) same тот же самый, одинаковый

sand песок

scholarship стипендия

shade тень

solitude уединение

stand терпеть, выносить

tear (tore, torn) разрывать, срывать

tripod треножник

twins близнецы

unique уникальный

wage сдельная заработная плата

watercolourist художник, который рисует акварелью

weather-beaten обветренное и высушенное загаром (о лице)

worth be worth стоить

Vocabulary Exercises

I Отгадайте слово и переведите:

1. сrenefefid

2. selucre

3. tulisode

4. pishlashorc

5. larcocha

6. misnomosic

7. hewrove

8. pucole

9. scalapend

10. revodisc

11. timonen

II Образуйте существительные от следующих глаголов и переведите:

1. сollect

2. contain

3. discover

4. lose

5. manage

6. hang

7. own

8. promotе

9. print

10. publish

III Выпишите из текстов слова, относящиеся к темам «Искусство», «Живопись» и «Фотография»

(должно получиться не менее 25 слов)

IV Переведите

1. Nearly all of modern pictures contain much more sense than you can see at first sight. 2. Most of the original Greek sculptures were lost for us. 3. In some deserts the sand can be different in colour. It can be red, grey or white, not only yellow. 4. Everybody needs solitude sometimes. 5. I have lost my scholarship because of bad marks. 6. Many years ago I wanted to work in an advertising agency. 7. The pages of the old book were all torn and dirty.

V Перевод:

1. Некоторые люди нуждаются в уединении, некоторые очень общительны. 2. Я не получаю стипендию в этом семестре (term), однако родители дают мне деньги на карманные расходы. 3. В чем разница между углем и карандашом? 4. Мой любимый пейзаж – это пустыня. Невысокие холмы, мертвый песок, горячие камни, никакой тени – и над всем этим горящее солнце. Арабы с обветренными лицами, верблюды, песня Стинга «Роза Пустыни» (Desert Rose)… 5. Современные фотоаппараты не нуждаются в треножнике. 6. Он сорвал холст с мольберта и разорвал его на две части. 7. Я люблю открывать для себя новых людей и новые страны, хотя я и делаю это только в Интернете. 8. Ты выставлял свои акварели на прошлой выставке? 9. Мой менеджер коллекционирует редкие машины, он заплатил 80 тыс. долларов за старый Форд на аукционе. 10. Близнецы часто выбирают одинаковую одежду. 11. Одно рекламное агентство заказало нам оригинальный проект. Надеемся, что мы получим прибыль в соответствии с контрактом! 12. Это моя личная страница. Что я здесь выставляю, это мое личное дело.

VI Составьте сообщение на одну из тем:

1. Georgia and Alfred

2. An American Icon

3. The Unique Life of Georgia O’Keeffe

4. Alfred Stieglitz and American Art

Discussion Points

· What is the difference between solitude and loneliness? Are you a loner and a recluse or an outgoing person?

· Do you need solitude to focus on your projects? Is it easy for you to concentrate in the presence of other people?

· How much is your scholarship? What do you spend it on? How much pocket money do you get? If you got US$ 12000 pocket money every month like Alfred Stieglitz did, what would you do with it?

· What types of landscape are mentioned in the text? What other kinds of landscape do you know? Which of them are your favourites to be in or to paint?

· Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz were married, but lived separately for long periods. What are the pluses and minuses of two artists living together? Are you ready to marry an artist?

Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner

Jackson Pollock (1912 – 1956) was the head of the Abstract Expressionist* movement which was the most important trend in the USA in the 1940s and 50s. He was famous for his unique style of drip painting.

Like his role models Picasso and Salvador Dali, Pollock also had a wife of Russian origin, painter Lee Krasner, born Lena Krassner to immigrant parents. Though born in America, she was a typical Russian woman in helping Pollock fight his alcoholism and go through hard times before they had both become recognizable. They met in New York and later moved to a seaside place called Springs. With the help of Peggy Guggenheim* they bought a house and a barn which Pollock had turned into a studio. It was there that Pollock started working in the drip technique.

Though some people call it crazy, the drip technique was unique in more than one way. This kind of painting is also called “All-over style”*. There’s no place for traditional composition or even traditional tools like the brush and the easel and one part of the painting is just as important – or unimportant – as another. To stop people thinking and looking for recognizable objects in his art Pollock even stopped giving names to his works and started using numbers.

A large canvas was laid on the studio floor and Pollock would movearound it in a kind of trance, almost dancing, not seeing or hearing anything else. As he dripped the paint on the canvas, some of the paint went in, so it was a mixture of controllable and uncontrollable factors. Then he would stop moving and say “This is it”.

However, he stopped working in the drip technique at the peak of his popularity and started working in other styles. In spite of his popularity, his alcoholism got worse and he didn’t paint a single picture in 1956.

On August, 11, 1956, while Lee was away, Jackson Pollock brought his young girlfriend Ruth Kligman and her friend Edith Metzger to his home in Springs. Later in the evening when Jackson was already drunk they set out to go to a party. The car crashed less than a mile from Pollock’s home. Jackson Pollock and Edith Metzger were killed instantly, Ruth Kligman survived.

After Pollock’s death, Lee Krasner worked to keep up his popularity and reputation. It was also after his death that she painted her brightest and best works, although her legacy was not very large as she often cut up her own pieces. She died at the age of 75 from natural causes and was one of the four women artists to have had a retrospective show at the Museum of Modern Art.

As in his lifetime, when Pollock’s painting was either loved or hated, the discussion still continues now, nearly 70 years after his death.

When mathematicians tried to examine Pollock’s works after his death they discovered that the geometric movement of splashes of paint in his drip technique is identical to the rhythm of mathematical fractals. They say that Pollock had an intuition of chaotic movement 10 years before the discovery of Chaos Theory.

Other critics explain Pollock’s popularity as a weapon of the Cold War: he was both an authority in modern art and the strongest possible contrast to Social Realism* among American painters.

In spite of the continuing disputes over Jackson Pollock’s works and the hard times he often went through in his lifetime, his popularity continues well into the 21^st century. His Number 5 holds the official price record of $ 140 million, rock and jazz bands use his works in their cover artworks, and Ed Harris film Pollock was an Oscar winner in 2001.

Abstract Expressionism Абстрактный Экспрессионизм

Peggy Guggenheim* Пегги Гуггенхайм, известная американская покровительница искусств

All-over style Абстрактный стиль, где нет деления композиции на разные планы

Social Realism* Социалистический реализм, стиль живописи в СССР

Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933)

Louis Comfort Tiffany was a member of the clan, a painter, a photographer, an interior designer, a collector, a world traveller, a manufacturer and a gardener. Above it all, he was a man to see the light, and he made other people see it through his stained glass. He was the father of American design, and his family name reads as a synonym of luxurygoods.

Questions:

What does gemology study?

What precious stones and metals do you know?

Where is the name ‘Tiffany’ mentioned in the popular culture?

Match the words in the columns and use the expressions in phrases or sentences of your own.

amber hard

marble green

emerald grey

sapphire white

ruby white

diamond blue

silver yellow

pearl red

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