On the Spiritual in Art

Grey & Brown Leaves, 1929

In Grey & Brown Leaves from 1929, O’Keeffe has placed a large greyish brown leaf frontally centered, on top of a warm brown leaf. She has played with color perspective and switched its logic, so that the warm, yellow and close tone is behind the rather cool, distant brown nuance in the leaf in the foreground.

Turner brings up the idea that leaves could be self-portraits. She claims that Stieglitz was inspired by New York Dada movement and that he encouraged the artists in the circle to create abstract self-portraits or images of emotion. Another factor that may speak to the fact that both leaves, trees and flowers are symbolical portraits, is that O’Keeffe in these motifs often, perhaps always, chose the portrait format and she also often isolated the motif from its surroundings.

Art critic Lewis Mumford described the effect watching O’Keeffe’s leaves in a letter:

When I reached the lowest depths of winter depression last week, lying in bed with a sore throat, I asked Sophie to put your picture (that of the flaming and somber oak leaves) in front of me so I could see it: and I swear that it aided my recovery, giving me an assurance that life was somewhere, if not in me!

If brown nuances of leaves could inspire depressed and sick people, her clear colors must be even more life-giving, according to Turner.

Kandinsky describes the psychological functions, psychic effects and chromatherapy in his book. Chromatherapy is a way to use color to influence the body and is thought to be able to treat several ailments and diseases. A warm red is stimulating and makes the heart beat faster, for example, while another red tone can produce a feeling of discomfort, if associated with blood.

Books

Vibrational Healing Through the Chakras: With Light, Color, Sound, Crystals, and Aromatherapy

How to Heal with Color (How to (Llewellyn))

Georgia O’Keeffe: The Poetry of Things

In the American Grain: Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, John Marin, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Alfred Stieglitz : The Stieglitz Circle at the Phillips Collection

Republished by Old Post Promoter

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