Georgia and albert :: essays research papers

The gallery, as most are, was sparsely furnished with only a few benches. It was dominated by three huge paintings and peppered with many smaller works. In front of one, stood two sorority girls who were in heated debate. Rodney, seeing an opening to impress them, sauntered over to look at the painting and await the question he knew would come. He was right. One of the girls turned and asked "Can you tell if this is a man's or a woman's painting?" Not the question he'd expected. "Well," He said earnestly, examining the huge canvas with its large bold strokes of deep blue on a background of fantastic yellow patches. "It looks very strong. The paint is applied with a wild vitality. I'd say it's a man's work." "I told you so." said the first girl who's name was Amy. At least that's what her sweater said. "Well the label says Stacy Conover. That's a girls name." Complained the second girl. "Jan, it can be a guy's name too." This sort of argument occurs at almost every gallery. It isn't easy to settle either. Art done by men does not always look masculine nor does art by women always look feminine. The question that is posed is: Can you tell the difference between a mans art and a woman's art? I personally thought it through and decided I didn't have enough information. After digging through the library's encyclopedias, art history books, biographies and folios, it was clear that the original question was too broad. It just is not possible to give an answer on this much subject matter. With this in mind I set parameters and singled out two artists to be my subjects. Ideally the artist should have similar backgrounds as far as family and schooling. Also they need to have lived during the same period. Similar subjects and related media are best. Also they should have worked in the same locale at least for part of their careers. Hunting down and ferreting out a pair of artists to fit this description was not easy. I finally settled on two of the most important artists of the American Avant Garde, Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz. As strange as it may seem this husband and wife shared many aspects. Enough to fit my parameters anyway. Georgia and Alfred were both born into large, wealthy, immigrant families. Georgia, the oldest O'Keefe daughter and Alfred the oldest son of the Stieglitz.