GLENS FALLS, NY.- The Hyde Collection announces the opening of its summer exhibitions entitled Modern Nature: Georgia OKeeffe and Lake George in Wood Gallery and A Family Album: Alfred Stieglitz and Lake George in Hoopes Gallery. The exhibitions opened on June 15, 2013 and run through September 15, 2013.
Modern Nature is the first to explore the formative influence of Lake George on the art and life of Georgia OKeeffe (1887-1986). From 1918 until 1934, OKeeffe lived for part of each year at Alfred Stieglitzs (1864-1946) family estate on Lake George in New Yorks Adirondack Park. The property was situated just north of Lake George Village along the western shoreline. It served as a rural retreat for the artist, providing the basic materials for her art, while evoking the spirit of place that was essential to OKeeffes modern approach to the natural world. During this highly productive period she created more than 200 paintings on canvas and paper in addition to sketches and pastels, making her Lake George years among the most prolific and transformative of her seven-decade career. This period also coincided with OKeeffes first critical success and emergence as a professional artist.
Curated by Erin B. Coe, Hyde chief curator, and Barbara Buhler Lynes, former curator of the Georgia OKeeffe Museum, it was organized in association with the Georgia OKeeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico. With sixty paintings on view, it premieres at The Hyde Collection and travel to the Georgia OKeeffe Museum in Santa Fe from October 4, 2013 January 26, 2014, and to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, de Young Museum from February 15 May 11, 2014.
In connection with Modern Nature, through a selection of approximately thirty photographs by the influential photographer, critic, and dealer Alfred Stieglitz, A Family Album: Alfred Stieglitz and Lake George takes an intimate look at the people who resided on the property while OKeeffe was in residence there, including members of the Stieglitz family, and the special place that bound them together.
During the years 1918 to 1934, Georgia OKeeffe left the bustle and heat of New York City and headed for the pristine, mountain-rimmed waters of Lake George where her companion, and later husband, Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946), and his family kept a summer home. Comprised of thirty-six bucolic acres located a mile north of Lake George village on the western shoreline, their country retreat known as the Hill was a former farm and contained a large farmhouse and a number of barns and outbuildings. Today, the property is a residential subdivision and is identified with a historic marker at the foot of the hill.
Lenders to Family Album include The Adirondack Museum and Alfred Stieglitzs grandniece Sue Davidson Lowe. The exhibition is curated by Erin B. Coe, Chief Curator, The Hyde Collection and Caroline Welsh, Senior Art Historian and Director Emerita, The Adirondack Museum.