Honolulu Museum of Art ~ Art Inspiration of the Islands

"Many things are so beautiful that they don’t seem real. 

My idea of the world—nature—things that grow ... "

~ Georgia O'Keeffe, 

letter from Hawaii to her husband Alfred Stieglitz

George Rickey

Two Open Rectangles Excentric, 1977

Burnished steel, 31' x 11'

(Balanced with counterweights, it moves with the wind!)

Honolulu Museum of Art

Opened to the public in 1922

This is a wonderful museum in Honolulu with a beautiful and varied art collection. I actually joined the museum when I was there, hoping to be able to spend more time. If I was an O'ahu resident I think I would practically be living there! You'll see why.

"The museum’s permanent collection has grown from 500 works to more than 50,000 pieces spanning 5,000 years, with significant holdings in Asian art, American and European painting and decorative arts, 19th- and 20th-century art, an extensive collection of works on paper, Asian textiles, and traditional works from Africa, Oceania, and the Americas." - from the website

Beautiful flowers as you enter the museum ...

"That our children of many nationalities and races, born far from the centers of art, may receive an intimation of their own cultural legacy and wake to the ideals embodied in the arts of their neighbors....that Hawaiians, Americans, Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Filipinos, Northern Europeans and all other people living here, contacting through the channel of art those deep intuitions common to all, may perceive a foundation on which a new culture, enriched by the old strains may be built in the islands."

—Anna Rice Cooke’s dedication statement, which she read at the opening of the Honolulu Academy of Arts on April 8, 1927    

"The museum is really lovely—white— rooms not too large—open courts here and there—open to the sky—a lovely building ... The Chinese room very beautiful—much more human feeling than what we do with such things in the East—flowers and grass seem to get in—they help in a museum ..."  ~ Georgia O'Keeffe, letter from Hawaii to her husband Alfred Stieglitz

There's a building for the "Arts of Hawai'i" which is so lovely to experience while you are in Honolulu. Here is a very small sampling of those works. 

Theodore Wores

The Lei Maker, 1901

Oil on Canvas

Chris Campbell

Strike a Pose III, c. 2005

Oil on canvas

"It is hard to tell about the island- the people have a kind of gentleness that isn't usual on the mainland. I feel that my tempo must definitely change to put down [or paint] anything of what is here- I don't know whether I can or not- but it is certainly a different world- and I'm glad I came." ~Georgia O'Keeffe

Lionel Walden

The Torchlight Fishermen, Waikiki, 1930

Oil on canvas board

Lionel Walden

Hawaiian Fisherman, 1924

Oil on canvas

William Twigg-Smith

Hilo Sampans, 1917

Oil on canvas

"One of the things I find myself thinking most often is that there is some thing so perfect about the climate here that it seems a bit ridiculous— even if you walk in the rain as I did yesterday up on the side of the mountain . . . it is neither hot nor cold and I love slushing through the water—Such lovely rainbows too ... "  ~ Georgia O'Keeffe, in a letter to her husband Alfred Stieglitz

Robert Delaunay

The Rainbow, 1913

Oil on Canvas 

(I love his piece!!!)

If you'd like to get to know more of Robert Delaunay's work check out this slideshow (with music) someone uploaded to YouTube. I actually adore his wife Sonia Delaunay's work, as well.

Alexander Calder
Hi!, c. 1928
wire

Hans Hofmann (American, 1880-1966)

Fragrance, 1956

Oil on canvas

I love this vibrant work of abstract impressionism! In person it has even more a sense of energy, light and movement! 

Detail of Fragrance

Kevin, below, enjoying art of the 19th century. Van Gogh to the left, Monet's Water Lilies directly in front and a lovely Camille Pissarro, Rouen Saint-Sever Morning, to his right.

Vincent van Gogh
Wheat Field, 1888
Oil on canvas

This next photo was one of my favorite rooms. I want this room! Haha! I could have sat in there for hours with my journal or sketchbook. How cool do the orange walls look with the incredible (and very large) portraits, crystal chandelier, and lucite chairs? Yum!

On the left

John singer Sargent

Mrs. Thomas Lincoln Manson, Jr., 1891

Oil on canvas

On the right

James McNeill Whistler

Arrangement in Black No. 5: Lady Meux

Oil on canvas

Center

Alex Katz

Ada With a Black Scarf, 1966

Oil on canvas

There's also a wonderful Alice Neel painting in that room!

And, of course, when there are Italians present I must include a couple of those! Check out the look on Baby Gésu's face below.

Follower of Benozzo Gozzoli

Madonna and Child with Angels (detail) 15th Century
Tempera, gilding on wood panel

Workshop of Fra Fillippo Lippi
Two Saints, Mid 15th Century
Tempera, gilding on panel
(And velvet?!)

 

I love this garden area! So peaceful and the pond has koi fish! I want to go back and sketch there too!

The beautiful area above leads you into their wonderful collection of Asian Art. 

I don't have any photos of the Japanese Woodblock Prints because (for preservation) the room was too dark but they have the most incredible and expansive collection. More than 10,000 prints which is the 3rd largest in the United States! You can see many of them on their website including Hokusai's The Great Wave.

What I did get were photos of some of the other beautiful artifacts and exhibits that were on display.

Amida 

Japan, 15th century

Wood, gold

Bodhisattva Seishi

Japan, Heian period, 10th-11th century

Wood

The figure above is one of the main attendants of Amida Buddha and symbolizes the power of wisdom.

Anonymous Empress

Japan, Edo period, 19th century

Porcelain, paper-mâché, wood, hair, 

silk, cotton, metal and pigments

Attributed to Tankei (1173-1256)
Eleven-Headed Kannon
Japan, Kamukura period, 13th century
Wood, bronze, gold

So delicate and the face is exquisite!

OK, so keep in mind this next sculpture is large. As in ... life size. The room lights are dim and as you enter the room it's presence is so powerful. As you'll see, it sits there washed in a warm glow of light in the "royal ease" positing. Stunning.

Anonymous 

Guanyin ~ The Bodhisattva of Compassion 

c. 1025

China, Northern Song or Tangut Xia dynasty 

The Hawaiian wood works and textiles were almost impossible to photograph behind glass. It was too dark and there was too much glare for my iPhone but if you get there, they are definitely worth seeing.

When I came around a corner and saw these paintings I took a long breath and exhaled. Beauty in green! There's nothing else like a Georgia O'Keeffe. Here, she seems to pare the paintings down to their absolute essentials and the result is captivating. You have all the information you need about these beautiful scenes.

Georgia O'Keefee

Waterfall-No. III-Iao Valley, 1939

Oil on Canvas

" My paintings are all sharp green valleys with waterfalls. Today was very rainy so the valley is full of mists—It is queer to sit out there in the rain painting and not mind the rain till it really poured so hard I couldn’t see much ..."~ Georgia O'Keeffe, in a letter to her husband Alfred Stieglitz

Georgia O'Keeffee

Papaw Tree, 'Iao Valley, Maui,

1939

Oil on Canvas

Georgia O'Keeffe 

Waterfall-End of Road-'Iao Valley, 1939

Oil on Canvas

"Such deeply wrinkled mountain sides with such high waterfalls could be seen through breaks in the trees across the valley—It is really a beauti-ful world . . ." ~ Georgia O'Keeffe

There was a whole show of O'Keeffe's Hawaii paintings at the New York Botanical Garden last year! Wouldn't that have been great to see? Well, we may have missed it but here's a great little video explaining her time in Hawaii. The video also shows more works that she did while she was staying in the islands as well as works she painted when she got home that were inspired by her visit. 

(The sound cuts out for about 10 or seconds near the beginning but it kicks back in so don't give up!)

"It all just doesn’t seem real—a lot of different kinds of waterfalls—mostly very thin—tumbling way down from way up high—Then the trees—such wonderful trees  ... " ~Georgia O'Keeffe

"The shade is sort of thick and light at the same time—the sun pale—a long dreamy blue sort of a mountain raising up out of the ocean to the right and on the other side of the house a nearer mountain rises up so abruptly it is startling—it has a look like a sort of mossy rock.—palm trees—other trees—flowering things—many birds. I think I am going to like it."  ~ Georgia O'Keeffe

1. The letters are in the Alfred Stieglitz/Georgia O’Keeffe Archive in the Yale Collection of American Literature at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library and copyright © 2012 by Yale University. Per O’Keeffe’s request, the correspondence was sealed until 2006, twenty years after her death. 
   
   
   Hope you enjoyed the museum visit! For more information about the Honolulu Museum of Art, click HERE.

 Blessings, Light and Aloha!

Snow and O'Keeffe ~ New Mexico Museum of Art and the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum

To create one's world in any of the arts takes courage.

~Georgia O'Keeffe

Abstraction, (detail) 1980

Modeled 1946

White cast epoxy

It was a glorious Sunday in December, when my Mom, sister and I set out for the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, in Santa Fe. We had wanted to go for years and finally this was it! 

To prepare myself, a couple of weeks out, I downloaded the audiobook Portrait of an Artist: A Biography of Georgia O'Keeffe by Laurie Lisle to my "Audible" app, on my iPhone.  

It was fabulous and so added to my trip to trip to Santa Fe, giving context to her life and work there, and really so much more about her as a person and as an artist. I highly recommend it. (Yes, you can get it on Kindle or an actual book!)

Georgia O'Keeffe Museum

Santa Fe

Series I White & Blue Flower Shapes, 1919

Oil on Board

The painting above was one of my favorites with its gorgeous color, cemetery and brushwork. I love that the flower is so blown up it becomes an abstraction and new way of looking at the flower. Which, of course, was much of her intent but it's also the way she executed it ... beautiful.

Nobody sees a flower really; it is so small. We haven't time, 

and to see takes time - 

like to have a friend takes time.

~Georgia O'Keeffe

This is the video they show at the O'Keeffe Museum (narrated by Gene Hackman) and shows her, and where she lived at Ghost Ranch, as well as the countryside and the art it inspired. It's only about 13 minutes and even gives a quick overview of her start as a professional artist.

Below, was the first gallery we walked into. The paintings are always so much more beautiful in person than they are seeing them in books or prints. They are so lush and have this depth and the paint ... you could just eat it up!

 

Staring into the "face" of these flowers which much bigger than your own head, in person ... sigh.  This one of the petunias is incredibly beautiful.

Georgia O'Keeffe

Petunia No. 2, 1924

The next two paintings were smaller than many of her flower paintings, but just exquisite, like little jewels.

Calla Lily Turned Away, 1923
Pastel on paper-faced cardboard

I believe I would rather have Stieglitz like something-

anything I had done-

than anyone else I know.

~Georgia referring to the man who would become her husband, 

the famous photographer and gallery owner Alfred Stieglitz

Calla Lily for Alfred, 1927

Oil on canvas board

The museum opened in 1997 and my sister told me it is the only museum in the United States dedicated to a female artist.  In the beginning "the collection was made up 140 O'Keeffe paintings, watercolors,  and pastels but now includes nearly 1,200 objects."

This is a great short video of Georgia O'Keeffe talking about her own work, and that the bones she painted didn't have to do with death and how they "had so much life in them." I love the blue and white series of pelvic bones against the sky. Such simple graceful lines ...

Above the Clouds I, 1963

Oil on canvas

48 x 84"

(This photo is much warmer than the painting.)

... and the SKY - Anita you have never seen SKY - it is wonderful ...

~Georgia O'Keeffe in a letter to Anita Pollitzer, 1916

Todd Webb

O'Keeffe's Studio, Ghost Ranch,

New Mexico, 1945

I often painted fragments of things 

because it seemed to make my statement as well as

or better than the whole could.

~Georgia O'Keeffe

Pond in the Woods, 1922
pastel on paper

I decided that if I could paint that flower in a huge scale, 

you could not ignore its beauty.

~ Georgia O'Keeffe

Abstraction White Rose II, 1927

Oil on Canvas

detail of above painting ... some of the brushwork was almost invisible.

I've been absolutely terrified 

every moment of my life 

and I've never let it keep me from doing 

a single thing that I wanted to do.

~Georgia O'Keeffe

 This sculpture was one of only two that O'Keeffe ever did and it was after her husband Alfred Stieglitz died. It's so sensual and beautiful the way it catches the light. It was so lovely in the window. It's the same piece as the detail photo at the top of the post.

Abstraction, 1980

Modeled 1946

White cast epoxy

 

From New York to New Mexico: 

Masterworks of American Modernism

 from The Vilcek Foundation Collection

September 25, 2015 - January 10, 2016

"American art experienced radical change a century ago. A group of innovative, highly-individualistic artists broke with tradition to define a new art for the United States, an art expressing the energy, vitality, and singular identity of modern America."

Here are just a few pieces from the Vilcek Collection exhibition, that was going on while were there, at the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. 

I love this O'Keeffe piece! Look at that green!!! 

Georgia O'Keeffe

Lavender Hill with Green, 1952

It was all so far away -

there was quiet and an untouched feel to the country 

and I could work as I pleased.

~Georgia O'Keeffe

Helen Torr

American, 1886-1967

Impromptu, 1928

Oil on canvas board

Stanton Macdonald-Wright

American, 1890-1973

Gestation #3, 1963

My sister, mom and I all loved this piece so much, I'm adding a detail photo of it. It was incredible. At first glance it's so vibrant but then there are all of these subtle, more muted tones and beautiful gradations of color, along with the wonderful shapes that in some places have very defined spaces and in other places merge ... I love the color palette and how the composition and shapes send you around the painting as if to music. No idea what the artist actually intended and this part of art history is something I never studied or read about, but I just love it. Now I want to read all about him!

There were so many amazing pieces I could show you but ... off to the New Mexico Museum of Art!

New Mexico Museum of Art

Santa Fe

1916-17

Louise Crow

American, 1891-1968

Yen-see-do, before 1919

Oil on canvas

 

In the courtyard ... so beautiful! There was also a Christmas Tree which I already posted in my Santa Fe Holiday post. The snow was so perfect it almost didn't look real!

They had told us at the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum that they were having a show of her work at this Museum, as well, and that many of their pieces were on display (almost around the corner!) Unfortunately, no photos because it was a special exhibition and the New Mexico Museum of Art didn't own the paintings. Their own collection, fortunately, we could photograph and there were some really gorgeous paintings like these!

E. Martin Hennings
American, 1886-1956
Among the Aspens, 1939
Oil on canvas

Marsden Hartley, 1877-1943)

El Santo, 1919

oil on canvas

Robert Henri

American, 1865-1929

Portrait of Dieguito Roybal, San Ildefonso Pueblo, 1916

Oil on canvas

There was a lot of glare, so that's why some of these photos are at a crazy angle!

Gerald Cassidy
American, 1879-1934
Cui Bono?, circa 1911
Oil on canvas
(huge painting 93 1/2 x 48 in. and just beautiful.)

T.C. Cannon
American, Kiowa-Caddo, 1946-1978
Washington Landscape with Peace Medal Indian, 1976
acrylic on canvas
(One of my favorite pieces in the museum. Interesting title ... "Washington Landscape" is said first  before "Peace Medal Indian" and look how tiny the Capitol Building is! Anyway, it's huge and colorful and stunning. Matisse would have dug it. No?)

 Saint Francis Auditorium 

Opened June 1918

Though it's built to look like a traditional church, it's a civic auditorium which is connected to the museum and they have all sorts of concerts and programs. Here's a little video which tells about it, if you are interested.

Donald Beauregard, was brought to Santa Fe to execute the series of murals. He prepared the sketches for all the murals and executed the Saint Clare triptych but died in 1913 before he could complete the others. The Apotheosis of St. Francis, the Conversion of St. Francis and the outer panels of the St. Clare triptych were completed by Kenneth Chapman. 

The Conversion of Saint Francis

The murals are so pretty. They remind me of beautiful illustrations in my old books ...

The Renunciation of Saint Clare

Saint Clare triptych 

What a beautiful museum!

Near the plaza ... all decorated for Christmas. It could not have been more charming or beautiful.

So much art in Santa Fe, we could have used a week to see it. Anyway, after the two museums we were off to lunch at Palacio Cafe, which was a casual little place and very tasty! The chicken enchilada plate hit the spot and it's close to the plaza and near the Saint Francis Basilica, across from the park.

links

Santa Fe Museum of Art

Palacio Cafe

Georgia O'Keeffe Museum

It takes courage to be a painter.

I always felt I walked on the edge of a knife.

On this knife, I might fall off on either side,

but I'd walk it again!

So what! What if you do fall off?

I'd rather be doing something I really wanted to do.

~Georgia O'Keeffe

1887-1986

Clearly I am behind on posting since this was in December! More New Mexico to come. We headed to the Taos Pueblo among other adventures!

Hope your February is off to a great start! 

Blessings and light!