Spent the day walking the beach (in a non-stop, drizzling rain - it's Vancouver, after all), then taking in an exhibit of Georgia O'Keefe's paintings (with photographs of her by Alfred Stieglitz as a bonus) at the Vancouver Art Gallery. I've never been all that thrilled with O'Keefe's work, but figured that it was always possible that seeing the actual paintings might change my mind. Well, not really, although there were a few paintings that I did like. You can keep all the flower paintings, and a lot of her landscapes, but she did do some very simple paintings of pueblos. Very geometric, very plain. Of course, if you've been paying any attention at all to the photos I've been posting, you might have guessed that those would be the ones I'd like. And, forget about looking for them on Google's image search - they ain't there. She's flowers and skulls, as far as popular art history goes.

And, of course, sex. A lot has been made of the resemblance of various paintings of hers to various portions of the female anatomy. The fact that such interpretations were mainly the idea of her husband, Alfred Stieglitz, seems to have been pretty much forgotten. O'Keefe herself saw them, according to her, as just flowers. Close up, to be sure, but, if you've ever photographed (or painted) flowers, you know that that's where the interesting shapes and colours are.

Frankly, my favourite part of the show was the photographs of her that Stieglitz took. For the most part, these were pretty straight-ahead portraits of her, some even simple candids. They were interesting for two reasons. In the first place, she was a striking woman, and Stieglitz was obviously fascinated with her. In the photos, it's clear that he was the "photographer" and she was the "model". Which is not to say that Stieglitz was manipulating her for any nefarious purpose. He seems to have found her beautiful and to have wanted to bring out that beauty. They are photographs of a woman whom the photographer loves. Which brings me to the "in the second place" - a later set of photos of her, taken by another photographer, long after Stieglitz had died, that were also part of the exhibit. In these photos, she is clearly the one in control of the pictures, and they are clearly designed to enhance her commercial image. In these she is shown in "interesting" situations and poses - leaning in what is obviously an uncomfortable position against a rock, reading a book while a shirtless young man approaches her from behind. Stirring a pot of soup, one hand on her hip, staring at the photographer. And so on. PR photos, every one.

A fun day, all in all.