Georgia by Dawn Tripp

Georgia: A Novel of Georgia O'Keeffe by Dawn Tripp
Published by Random House Trade Paperbacks
Publication date: February 9, 2016
Genres: Book Clubs, Fiction, Historical

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When I become interested in a subject, especially when it’s a woman, I turn to historical fiction. I’m not sure why—maybe diving right into nonfiction makes me feel like I’m back in school? At the very least my compromised ability to pay attention means fiction of any kind is the right starting point. Thankfully, I found Dawn Tripp’s novel Georgia—a wonderful introduction to this fascinating woman and her life.

The novel opens when O’Keeffe is 29 and has taken a train from Texas to Manhattan to pursue her career as an artist. There she meets Alfred Stieglitz, the photographer and gallerist, who would go on to be the first to exhibit her art, mentor her, and later become her lover and husband, despite being 20 years her senior. Tripp skillfully depicts not just the details of their tumultuous time together, including his numerous affairs, but also the impact of their years on O’Keeffe’s life and her art. Their tempestuous relationship is the provocative core of Georgia the novel, but not the woman herself.

The choices and decisions made during their affair and marriage impacted her personally, but what stands out in Georgia was O’Keeffe’s steadfast belief in herself and her art. While she made personal sacrifices time and again for Stieglitz she never wavered in her artistic vision. From the beginning, she made her own way. At art school, when told by her male professors the way she painted was wrong, she ignored them and continued to paint how she wanted to. This was the 1920s and 30s when abstract art had yet to make its presence felt in America when female artists of any school were rare.

For O’Keeffe, everything was about the feelings evoked, whether it was a charcoal landscape of trees in winter or an abstract series of shapes washed with color. Even when her eyesight failed, she had no choice but to create. There was no winding down or stepping away, nothing but an instinct to paint as strong within her as the one to breathe. Tripp beautifully conveys this in Georgia in a way that felt expansive and intimate at the same time. This is captivating reading about an astonishing woman who, while she may have taken a back seat in her personal life at times, never acquiesced or let anyone define her artistic vision.

If you’d like to read more fiction about female artists I’d recommend Heather Webb’s Rodin’s Lover. I also loved The Blazing World by Siri Hustvedt, a piercing novel about a female artist trying to be successful in a man’s world. 

 

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