MEMPHIS, TN.- The Memphis Brooks Museum of Art presents today "Georgia O扠eeffe and the Calla Lily in American Art: 1860-1940," on view through Sunday, May 4, 2003. Georgia O扠eeffe and the Calla Lily in American Art, 1860-1940, organized by the Georgia O扠eeffe Museum, has been made possible, in part, by The Burnett Foundation and the National Advisory Council of the Georgia O扠eeffe Museum.
This project is funded under an agreement with the Tennessee Arts Commission, and The National Endowment for the Arts.
The spear-shaped leaves and yellow and white waxy blooms of the calla lily interested artists such as Fidelia Bridges, John LaFarge and Severin Roesen as soon as America began importing this exotic South African flower in the mid-1900s. By the early 20th century, its unusually elegant forms fascinated a large number of American painters and photographers, such as Imogen Cunningham, Charles Demuth, Marsden Hartley, Joseph Stella and, of course, Georgia O扠eeffe. The exhibition will include approximately 50 depictions of the calla, and offer an exciting and rich visual experience. With nearly half of the works by O扠eeffe, Demuth and Hartley, the exhibition will also explore the relevance of this subject to specific artists of the modernist Stieglitz circle.