Tacoma Art Museum presents the rare opportunity to view 22 of Georgia O’Keeffe’s paintings alongside 42 additional works by her New Mexico contemporaries in the exhibition Eloquent Objects: Georgia O’Keeffe and Still-Life Art in New Mexico, on view March 1 through June 7, 2015. TAM is the only West Coast venue for this major nationally-touring exhibition.

"Eloquent Objects takes a different look at the American Southwest through still-life paintings. If asked to describe an image that symbolized New Mexico, most people would likely talk about a landscape or the vibrant cultures of the area,” says Margaret Bullock, TAM’s Curator of Collections and Special Exhibitions. “The paintings in this exhibition instead focus on objects. They ask us to pause and think about how the things that interest us or surround us in our daily lives reveal something about us and the place and time we live in. These are deeply personal images.”

Visitors will sense the compelling appeal of New Mexico for painters during a time when many of these artists sought to refine their individual versions of modern art. Still lifes composed of sun-bleached bones, adobe architecture, starkly beautiful landscapes, blossoms, foods, and cultural and religious objects reveal these artists’ impressions of the region from the 1920s to the 1950s. Along with O’Keeffe, visitors will see works by important modernists Stuart Davis and Marsden Hartley and artists from each of the major art centers in New Mexico, including Gustave Baumann, Catherine Critcher, Eliseo Rodriguez and more. TAM has an additional O'Keeffe painting, Piñons with Cedar, on view in Art of the American West: The Haub Family Collection, along with other Taos Society works.

“It has been a decade since the Pacific Northwest has seen so many O’Keeffe paintings under one roof, and this is the first exhibition to focus on the role of the still life as a means for exploring New Mexico’s culture and diversity,” says TAM’s Director, Stephanie Stebich. “O’Keeffe is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century, consequently her works are in high demand. It is exceedingly difficult to borrow so many. It is a privilege to bring this exhibition to the Northwest.”

O’Keeffe lived for almost a century, developing and expressing remarkable skill as a painter and artist and leaving an indelible mark on American art. She spent the first half of her career living and working in New York. For O’Keeffe, New Mexico inspired a wholly new form of expression. Enchanted with the light, forms, and mix of cultures in New Mexico during her first visit in 1917, it became a second home for her, and at the age of 62, she made a permanent move to Abiquiu. The area became the primary subject of her art, and she conveyed her love of the region through form and color.

Join TAM to see how O’Keeffe and other modernist painters in New Mexico developed new ways of using color, shape, and space. Learn about their impressions of the environment and diverse cultures of New Mexico through this impressive collection of still-life paintings. 

For more information visit www.TacomaArtMuseum.org.