• To be true to nature one must abstract. Nature does not waste her forms. If you would know the clouds–then study the rocks. Flowers, shells, rocks, trees, mountains, hills–all have the same forms within themselves used with endless variety, but with consummate knowledge. The rhythms change, they do not close.

    –Henrietta Shore, 1933

  • True to Nature celebrates the contributions of four painters all born in the 1880s—Georgia O’Keeffe, Ida O’Keeffe, Henrietta Shore, and...
    Henrietta Shore 

    White Orchird, c. 1925

    Oil on board
    8 x 6 inches (20.3 x 15.2 cm)
    Signed at lower right: H. Shore; inscribed and signed on verso: White Orchid / by / Henrietta Shore

    True to Nature celebrates the contributions of four painters all born in the 1880s—Georgia O’Keeffe, Ida O’Keeffe, Henrietta Shore, and Helen Torr—who shared the unique opportunities and challenges of women artists working in the early twentieth century. This group shared aesthetic priorities and explored the world around them through varying degrees of abstraction and expressive use of color. Nature afforded the ideal vehicle for self-expression and was mined to reflect their true self through similar subjects including plant forms, the landscape and other organic motifs like seashells. In addition to sharing artistic concerns, they had professional challenges in common as well. In the post-Armory Show era, the practitioners of modernism faced limited opportunities to exhibit their work, and women artists in particular dealt with circumstances adverse to gaining the public recognition they deserved. The female peers of leading modernist, Georgia O’Keeffe, struggled to find steady representation and support for their art. Her younger sister Ida apparently claimed that she’d have been famous if she had her own Stieglitz. Inspired to bring attention to the achievements of women modernists, True to Nature highlights the aesthetic kinship among these five innovative painters and the individual experimentation that led each to finding their own distinctive voice.

  • I found that I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say in any other way–things that...
    Georgia O'Keeffe

    Flower and Vase, 1921

    Oil on canvas

    10 x 8 1/2 inches (25.4 x 21.6 cm)

    Signed on backing with artist's five-pointed star device; inscribed on backing: Final one of Zinnia; also inscribed by Alfred Stieglitz: 19 / Georgia O'Keeffe / Flower & Vase 1921 / Good / Old

    I found that I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say in any other way–things that I had no words for.

    Georgia O’Keeffe, 1923

  • If you are interested in speaking with us directly about the available works, or would like to learn more about the artist, please do not hesitate to connect with Alana Ricca by phone call, to the gallery at (212) 879-8815, or by mobile at (203) 524-2694. We look forward to being in touch with you soon.