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Illumination: The Paintings of Georgia O'keeffe, Agnes Pelton, Agnes Martin and Florence Pierce

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Libro usado en buenas condiciones, por su antiguedad podria contener señales normales de uso

191 pages, Hardcover

First published April 30, 2009

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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
Profile Image for A.
1,244 reviews
October 24, 2019
There are few opportunities to see work by Agnes Pelton, and I missed this one. Thankfully, this catalogue of the exhibition has beautiful reproductions of her work. The juxtaposition between Pelton and O'Keeffe feels subjective, as the juxtaposition between Martin and Pierce.

Still, the essays are full of good information. It seems that the work of Florence Miller Pierce should be seen in order to be understood.
48 reviews
June 11, 2009
ILLUMINATION - The Paintings of Georgia O'Keeffe, Agnes Pelton, Agnes Martin, and Florence Miller Pierce by Karen Moss, With essays by Timothy Robert Rodgers, Sharyn R. Udall, and Michael Zakian. Merrell Publishers/Orange County Museum of Art, 2009. 192 pages. $55.00 hardcover, 9-1/2" x 11-1/2", ISBN 978-1-8589-4481-4. color illustrations, biographical chronologies, notes, bibliography, index.

With the dominance of O'Keeffe, the other three Southwestern women artists cannot help but be seen in relation to her. The reader does this automatically. And the authors do too, although this is kept to a minimum. In terms of the artistic topic of illumination in the paintings from sensitivity to the interplay of land and light in the Southwest, the three artists have an almost equal status as O'Keeffe.

The essays with illustrations explore how "each artist manifested her personal sense of place and spirituality--both formally and conceptually--through illumination, using light to convey the mystical, ineffable, and sublime qualities of nature." The art of each is distinctive in its own way as each took a different approach to portraying the light of nature. Pierce's works are the most mystical with their biomorphic shapes and blending of colors. They evidence an Oriental influence and also suggest sculpture as many have geometrical or irregular shapes instead of the rectangular shape of most paintings. Martin's works including works on paper are like paled abstract or conceptual works for the way they catch subtleties of light within a particular narrow band of color, like a spectrum of ordinarily unseen light. The most idiosyncratic with brightness, whimsy, and symbols which can be private or common is Pelton's; with echoes of the work of Frida Kahlo. O'Keeffe's paintings with a graphic boldness and sensual lushness are familiar to all.

Following the four illustrated essays interrelating and differentiating each artist are sections of full-page color illustrations/art plates on each. There are about 12 illustrations for each one. The biological chronologies are not the simple, spare chronologies of dates and facts found in many books, but a section calling for attention almost on a par with the essays and illustrations. The life and career of each artist with photographs of her at different times and representative works in color spreads over six pages. The chronology of O'Keeffe (d. 1986) runs horizontally parallel to Pelton's (d.1961). Similarly, Martin (d. 2004) and Pierce (d. 2007) are paired.

Illumination in the visual arts, American women artists, and Southwestern art are all art topics of contemporary interest advanced in this comparative study.

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