Joan Allen plays painter Georgia O’Keeffe in this movie depicting the life and work of the most influential female artist in history. With her group of eclectic friends and unconventional outlook on life and marriage, O’Keeffe led a colorful existence and her paintings are just as colorful and interesting as the woman herself.
Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz
The film begins with O’Keeffe meeting gallery owner/photographer Alfred Stieglitz (Jeremy Irons). They are taken with each other and even though Alfred is married, Georgia enters into a love affair with this charming man. He becomes more than her lover. He is her benefactor and gets to work on publicizing O’Keeffe as a woman and an artist. His feelings for her work are just as intense as his feelings for her.
Eventually Alfred leaves his wife and he and O’Keeffe get married, however she insists on being called Miss O’Keeffe. She is a modern woman, even though it is still the first half of the twentieth century. Her independence and feminism are equal to that of Gloria Steinem who came along later in the century to push for female equality. However Georgia O’Keeffe was a pioneer in women’s equality.
Later on Alfred takes another lover and this is one thing that Georgia cannot take with stride. She is heartbroken by the free love attitude Alfred flaunts in her face. She breaks down and takes off to visit friends in New Mexico where she discovers a new landscape and new subjects for her paintings. She falls in love with New Mexico and feels at home there, revealing to her friend that she never really felt at home in the east.
Georgia O’Keeffe Discovers Herself in New Mexico
New Mexico not only provides Georgia with a quiet place to live, but everything around her beckons to be put on canvass. She loves everything about New Mexico.
Joan Allen’s performance is beautiful. This is an interesting story of the life of Georgia O’Keeffe, however it would have been nice to see more of her paintings incorporated into the film. They are visible on the walls of the gallery and the walls of her apartment, though.
The colors used by Georgia O’Keeffe are brilliant and she is the most influential female painter in history. While her life is unconventional and she is herself a little unusual, her paintings are definitely eye-catching and filled with colors and beauty that is truly feminine.
Tyne Daly, Ed Begley Jr., Linda Emond, and Henry Simmons co-star in this interesting film about an interesting woman.
The Lifetime Original Movie, Georgia O’Keeffe, premiers Saturday, September 19, 2009 at 9 PM ET/PT on Lifetime.
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