From the Classroom to the Canyon
The Panhandle-Plains
Historical Museum occupies a site near where O'Keeffe instructed in art.
An exhibit set in a brightly lit corner of the second floor commemorates
her time and work in Canyon. An old black-and-white photograph freezes
her students in class. A yearbook portrait captures the 28-year-old
artist: the high cheekbones; her dark, direct eyes; the heavy slash of
her eyebrows; the slight half-smile she always seemed to wear. The true
prize, though, is Red Landscape, one of only three oils she did
while in Canyon.
The painting reflects what O'Keeffe experienced in Palo Duro
Canyon--a landscape sculpted on a planetary scale and drenched in bold
colors. It looked, as she remembered--and painted--"a burning, seething
cauldron, filled with dramatic light and color."
"It's an early Modernist painting by her," explains Michael Grauer,
curator of art for the museum. "This is a seminal point in her career.
When she got here, she was inspired by what she saw. The rest, of
course, is history."
