i am completely baffled by why this charcoal drawing by Georgia O'Keeffe stopped me in my tracks last weekend at MoMA. what in the world is lurking in this plain, simple image that moves me so?
i did some quick online research and discovered that the art experts at MoMA feel this series of Special abstractions draws on "organic motifs" found in O'Keeffe's later work, and represents her "gender based expressions of self." O'Keeffe herself said these abstractions express the "things in my head" as opposed to the things out there.
this does not help me in the least. i'm puzzled by the title, Special No. 39. why special? why all the other specials? one image titled No. 13 Special, while another is titled Special No. 9. if you know, could you let me know?
in addition, i can't put my finger on what i'm seeing in this image that will keep me looking at it, and enjoying it for a long, long time. it looks like round, plastic tabs attached to pages in a book, or an horizon line with two rising suns placed vertically, or tiddly winks, or chinese checkers, or god knows what else.
actually, it doesn't really look like anything, but it speaks, and that truly is the beauty of abstraction. abstraction frees us, both as artists and viewers of art, from the constraints of representation and lets our minds wander wherever they may care to go. what freedom.
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