"Spirit of Place": Lawrence, O'Keeffe, Hartley and the Rest

Georgia O'Keeffe, From the Faraway Nearby, 1937

This week’s discussion revolved around the readings “The Spirit of Place” by D.H. Lawrence, ““The Faraway Nearby,” in Art in New Mexico, 1900-1945: Paths to Taos and Santa Fe, 147-180,” by Charles C. Eldredge, and ““Georgia O’Keeffe and Marsden Hartley in New Mexico,” in Marsden Hartley and the West, ix-xxii,” by Barbara Buhler Lynes.

 D.H. Lawrence, 1885-1930 

The D.H. Lawrence article was an outsider’s perspective of moving out West in America. The main point of this article was to challenge the concept of freedom, specifically in American, and through that define the spirit acquired by the people living with it. “The Faraway Nearby”, by Charles C. Eldredge examined the change in the style that developed during this time, especially when trying to capture the vastness of the west in more of an abstract manner.  

Marsden Hartley, Landscape, New Mexico, 1920

Barbara Buhler Lynes’ article “Georgia O’Keeffe and Marsden Hartley in New Mexico discussed the impact of the West for Marsden Hartley’s and Georgia O’Keeffe’s inspiration. Marsden Hartley, an artist who lived and worked with European influences, decided to move West in order to find a new source of inspiration under American influences. He later found himself bored of the West and moved back to New York, later exploring the influences of the West in his New Mexico Recollections. Where Hartley found a lack of motivating subject matter O’Keeffe felt she had found an unlimited supply of inspiration and beauty, O’Keeffe painted the things that were around her from Native American and Hispanic architecture to sun bleached bones. O’Keeffe is considered to be the artist that fulfilled the dream of Stieglitz to have a uniquely American art, free from European influences. 

Georgia O'Keeffe, Cow's Skull: Red, White and Blue, 1931

 Discussion this week mostly revolved around how we define freedom in comparison to what the Lawrence article suggested. A popular conclusion was that boredom is the opposite of freedom. This followed with conversations about the responsibilities involved in having freedoms. As a class we believe that to be free would be synonymous with being happy, but to have either of those things a person needs a goal. If a person’s goal is not attainable then they do not have freedom, it is having that attainable goal that keeps us free and free from boredom. Thus, being bound to the responsibility of following through with that thing, we can be the most free to feel satisfied or happy.

We used all of this to talk about how O’Keeffe and Hartley’s works differed because of their experience out west. This carried over to the way we as artist think about place in creating our own works. Hartley struggled with his sense of place in the West which affected his feelings while working on his art there. On the other hand, O’Keeffe had a strong sense of place, which helped her find inspiration in the environment of the West and bring her a sense of connection within her community. As artists, spirit of place is a vital element, whether that is literal or more of a abstract interpretation, we find it really important to act upon this sense of place in the work we do. The feeling of wanting to define and explain ourselves, along with setting ourselves free seems to be a ongoing cycle that will always provide inspiration. 

Discussion Leaders: Megan Hall, Teddy Lepley, Megan Sutton, Gabby O'Neal