GEORGIA O’KEEFFE: THE BRIGHTNESS OF LIGHT – Review by Leslie Combemale
There’s me seeing the MOTW team is watching a new documentary on Georgia O’Keeffe called Georgia O’Keeffe: The Brightness of Light, thinking “Oh, brother. Not another one.” I have seen both the 1977 doc authorized by Georgia herself, and the PBS 1991 film A Marriage: Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz. I was thrilled to discover that The Brightness of Light really does shed new light on the historic artist, her life, and her perspective.
I was also cynical, because why was a man directing this film? That writer/director Paul Wagner is an Oscar and Emmy award-winning filmmaker with 50 years of dedicated work was some consolation that a woman wasn’t behind the lens. The real mind changer was the fact that this documentary hinges a lot on events that happened while O’Keeffe was living in Charlottesville, Virginia, which is where Wagner and his family reside. He was inspired in part by an exhibition shown in 2018 documenting her time living in the area between 1912 and 1916, when her mother ran a boarding house for UVA students.
Whether you’ve never heard of Georgia O’Keeffe, lived with a poster of one of her flowers as your first piece of art, or, as in the case with a friend of mine, had a family that bought one of her originals in the 40s and proudly displayed it in their multi-generational house, you’ll learn something from this new film. That’s true not only because Wagner delves into the reasons and season of O’Keeffe’s time in Charlottesville and how it influenced the rest of her artistic life, but also because he leverages thousands of letters between O’Keeffe and Stieglitz only released in 2006. They reveal many of the events and emotional experiences that shaped O’Keeffe’s art and life.
In watching The Brightness of Light, I was particularly struck by the photos included that show many of the US locations where Georgia lived and created. Juxtaposed with her art, it’s clear they were very influential to her famous works. For people who love her art, seeing these images that moved her to create and expand her artistic oeuvre are so inspiring it’s almost transcendental. It’s also wonderful to hear, from the many academics and art experts (most of whom are women, by the way) just how American an artist she was. Those interviewed make a great case for that (what makes an artist uniquely “American?), but also how incredibly independent, strong willed and singular in her vision she was. That Claire Danes lends her voice as the iconoclastic artist just adds a layer of power to the passionate, dramatic and driven perspective represented in her writings.
It is very much appreciated that Wagner fills the film with female perspectives on O’Keeffe’s importance and artistry, but he also has the help of female below the line artists like composer Emilie Levienaise Farrouch, co-producer Ellen Casey Wagner, and co-cinematographer Dyanna Taylor. Even as an art historian and someone who knew a lot about Georgia’s work and life, I found Georgia O’Keeffe: The Brightness of Light fascinating. It is an enlightening portrait of an artistic figure essential to the 20th century and, by extension, understandings and interpretations of art, society, culture, and gender today.
4 out of 5 stars.
