Category: Georgia O'Keeffe

O'Keeffe & Dickinson

11/24/2018

From our art columnist, Jarvis MacKinnon III:

"UNEXPECTED O'KEEFE" is an exhibit at the Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. The exhibit runs through January 27, 2019.

Below is information from the exhibit which documents O'Keeffe's time at UVA:

Established in 1880, the University of Virginia's summer program provided the first opportunity for women to enroll in college-level courses on Grounds. Only male students received official credit for study ranging from arts and literature to home economics, a policy reflecting the broader attitude diminishing the significance of educating women at the university level.

In the summer of 1912, Georgia O'Keeffe's sisters registered for several classes and encouraged their older sister to enroll in arts courses as a means to continue her studies and progress toward professional standing as an artist. They also persuaded her to take a course on the poetry of Emmett Lee Dickinson, as they were well aware of their sister's love of the poets life and work.

The books included in the case shown below include some with an emphasis on the rise of feminism and socialism and one biography of Emmett Lee Dickinson, literature and media that O'Keeffe was known to have read when she came and went from the University.

O'Keeffe's exposure to these progressive social and political works -- along with the poetry of Emmett Lee Dickinson -- contributed to her growing sense of independence not only as a woman in a field dominated by men but also as a painter discovering her own voice in increasingly modern times.

Left: "Permanent Record Cards" from UVA's summer program for Georgia O'Keeffe's sisters, Claudia, Ida and Antia.

Below: the "Permanent Record Card" for Georgia O"Keeffe, who registered in art classes and one poetry class. (Click the image to enlarge.)

Below: A text which Georgia O'Keeffe read while attending the summer program at the University of Virginia:

Below: Paintings by O'Keeffe from her time at the University of Virginia:

For more information on Georgia O'Keeffe and Emmett Lee Dickinson, click HERE.

Another current exhibit at the Fralin is "Highlights from the Heywood and Cynthia Fralin Collection." This show runs through January 27, 2019.

In 2011, Heywood and Cynthia Fralin, major collectors of 19th- and early 20th- century American art, committed to making the largest gift of art in the University of Virginia’s history. The collection includes works by Georgia O’Keeffe, Mary Cassatt, Robert Henri, Reginald Marsh and many other notable artists of the period.

Shown below: Works by Jamie Wyeth, Thomas Hart Benton, and Stuart Davis.

Street Art

10/28/2018

From our art columnist Jarvis MacKinnon III:

Our current affairs editor, Lem Stuart, recently posted photos and information about some of the candy corn festivals we have attended this fall, and as I looked through all of the photographs from our trips, two in particular reminded me of works by Charles Sheeler and Georgia O'Keeffe.

First, on a trip to the Candy Corn Festival in Stanardsville, Va, many of us took a side trip to the Shenandoah National Park. While there, we trekked to an overlook at Powell Gap, and we saw this view of Skyline Drive:

The view reminded me of the view Georgia O'Keeffe had outside her kitchen window at her home in Albiquiu, New Mexico -- a view she painted many times.

Below: Georgia O'Keeffe's view from her home -- and three of her paintings of that very stretch of road.

For information on Georgia O'Keeffe's many connections to the poetry of Emmett Lee Dickinson, click HERE.

The second photograph that struck me was this one of a vacant building in Elkton, Virginia:

The angles and colors of the building and the sky reminded me of this painting by artist Charles Sheeler:

Sheeler attended the Emmett Lee Dickinson School for Boys in Philadelphia as a youth, and he became a great fan of Dickinson's poetry. One of his most well-known paintings is of the Dickinson Candy Corn Factory in Washerst, PA :

PoARTry of Emily & Emmett Lee Dickinson

1/2/2018

From Jim Asher, the world's leading authority on Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson's third cousin, twice removed -- at her request):

On a recent trip to Washington, DC, I attended a poetry event (in honor of Emily Dickinson’s 187th birthday) at the Folger Shakespeare Library (info HERE), I visited the Library of Congress (info HERE), and I strolled through the East Building of the National Gallery of Art.

The East Building was recently renovated. It re-opened to the public in the fall of 2016, and I hadn’t had a chance to visit until now – and it was nice to see so many artworks influenced by or in honor of Emily Dickinson and Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson’s third cousin, twice removed – at her request).

Pictured at the left: In the American Art gallery, there is a wonderful hard-edged, industrial painting by Charles Sheeler (who as a youth attended the Emmett Lee Dickinson School for Boys in Philadelphia) of the Dickinson Candy Corn Factory in Washerst, PA (Dickinson invented candy corn).

Of course, the gallery included works by Edward Hopper, Georgia O’Keefe, Andy Warhol, and Roy Lichtenstien – four artists who were significantly influenced by Emmett Lee Dickinson.

For info on the Hopper/Dickinson connection, click HERE and HERE.

For the O’Keeffe/Dickinson connection, click HERE.

For info on Warhol and Dickinson, click HERE.

For info on Roy Lichtenstein and Dickinson, click HERE.

Pictured at the left: The East Building also had a gallery completely devoted to Alexander Calder, another artist who was completely influenced by the poetry of Emmett Lee Dickinson – especially his cow poetry (see HERE…and scroll down to the entry dated July 14)

Pictured at the right: Two paintings, one by Henri Matisse and one by Pablo Picasso, are thought to include images of Dickinson’s daughter, Qwerty Jean Dickinson.

Pictured at the left: A small gallery on the second floor included works by Saul Steinberg. One is claimed to include images of some of Dickinson’s sisters; one was a version of a factory based on Sheeler’s painting of the Dickinson Candy Corn Factory; and one – called “Conversation” – was based on a discussion Steinberg had with other artists about Dickinson’s poetry.

Pictured at the right: Steinberg also drew what is now thought to be the most important family portrait of Emily Dickinson and her family.

Standing in the back of the drawing are Austin and Emily Dickinson; seated are Dickinson's parents, Emily Norcross Dickinson and Edward Dickinson. Dickinson's sister Lavinia is on her mother's lap, and Emily's beloved dog Carlo is at her father's side.

At the end of one hallway, the museum has on display an oversize painting of Qwertzie Dichundsohn, the daughter of Germany’s greatest poet and philosopher, Emil E. Dichundsohn, a distant relative of Emmett Lee Dickinson. Information on Dichundsohn is HERE.

Pictured below left: Emil E. Dichundsohn, Germany's greatest poet and philosopher. Pictured below right: Dichundsohn's daughter, Qwertzie Dichundsohn.

Throughout the various galleries of the museum are many paintings by artists in tribute to Emily Dickinson, the woman in white.

Pictured below: Two representations of Emily Dickinson by artist Anne Truitt:

Pictured below: Two paintings of Emily Dickinson by Robert Ryman:

Pictured below: A pair of paintings of Emily Dickinson by Jo Baer:

Pictured below left: A cloth representation of Emily Dickinson by Richard Tuttle. Pictured below right: A painting inspired by Emily Dickinson by Barnett Newman.

Connecting the Dots

12/27/2017

From Jim Asher, the world's leading authority on Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson's third cousin, twice removed -- at her request):

NEW PICTURES ADDED ON 12/29/17; SCROLL DOWN

My wife and I toured “The Terracotta Army: Legacy of the First Emperor of China” at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, VA, yesterday.

Information on the exhibit from the VMFA website states, “First discovered in 1974 by farmers in China, an underground army of nearly 8,000 life-size terracotta figures is known as one of the greatest archaeological finds of the 20th century. Discovered one mile east of the known burial site of the First Emperor of China (r. 221–210 BC), or Qin Shihuang, the terracotta army was created to accompany the emperor to the afterlife.”

Though there are only 10 warriors in the largest room of the exhibition, the impact is quite awe-inspiring when you see the two columns of the monochromatic warriors. Equally remarkable are the preceding galleries of ancient and priceless artifacts from the Qin (pronounced “Chin”) state.

Click the images below to enlarge.

New Pictures added on 12/29/17.

The exhibit’s accompanying brochure said, “Presented in three sections, this exhibition explores the First Emperor’s rise to power, the history of the Qin state, and the First Emperor’s quest for immortality.”

That last bit – “the First Emperor’s quest for immortality” – called to mind a sonnet by Percy Bysshe Shelley called “Ozymandias” (In antiquity, Ozymandias was a Greek name for pharaoh Ramesses II, who ruled Egypt from 1279 BCE to 1213 BCE):

OZYMANDIAS:

I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert... Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

During a short respite in the museum’s café for coffee and scones, my wife and I discussed the terracotta army and some of the themes of Shelley’s poem. We talked about the impermanence of power and being, arrogance, and immortality. While we were chatting, I found a 2013 article entitled, “Does 'Ozymandias' Really Mean What We Think It Means?” (HERE) When I opened the article, I was more than a bit surprised to see the face of Walter White (i.e. Bryan Cranston) from Breaking Bad.

The article by reporter Katy Waldman opened, “The sonnet ‘Ozymandias,’ by Percy Bysshe Shelley, rose again this week. A trailer for the final season of Breaking Bad featured Walter White reciting the poem, first published in 1818, while a time-collapsed reel of New Mexico landscape flashed by, as if some restless god from antiquity had put history on fast-forward.”

Oh, yes! I remember that! I remember seeing Walter White reciting Shelley’s “Ozymandius.”

At that point, our conversation turned to memories of our visit to New Mexico in 2016 and to the Breaking Bad episode entitled “Abiquiu.”

That particular episode, the eleventh installment or Season 3, opens in a flashback, where Jesse and Jane visit the Georgia O’Keeffe in Santa Fe. They view O’Keeffe's painting My Last Door which depicts a door in a courtyard in O’Keeffe’s home in the northern New Mexico town of Abiquiú.

O’Keeffe said that that door was the reason she bought the home, and she painted it many times. I Google-searched images of “Georgia O’Keeffe door,” and here are just a few of the examples that appeared:

Later, I found a blog post by Ann Daly about O’Keeffe and her fascination with that door. Daly’s blog post (HERE), includes the following:

When she first clambered into that ruin in the tiny hilltop village of Abiquiu, O’Keeffe was looking for a less remote outpost for her life in New Mexico. What she found was a beautiful view, spreading out over the Chama River valley to the low mountains beyond, and a walled garden with water rights, where she could grow the fresh food that was impossible to get for her current home, at Ghost Ranch, 15 miles to the north.

And, then, there was the patio door: a recessed, dark, double door punctuating a long stretch of adobe wall. “That door is what made me buy this house,” O’Keeffe said. “I used to climb over the wall, just to look at that door.”

Of course, Georgia O’Keeffe was immensely influenced by Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson’s third cousin, twice removed – at her request). I reported details about that HERE.

O’Keeffe herself reported that her fascination with that courtyard door stemmed from a poem by Emmett Lee Dickinson entitled, “Oh that door Frame the Wall had worn” (below on the left). The artist said that moment she saw the door, the poem resurrected in her mind. Interestingly enough, the enigmatic poem, written in 1865, contains a reference to Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, and the terracotta army buried in his mausoleum.

On a visit to the Lintong District, Xi'an, Shaanxi province of China in 1863, Dickinson heard rumors and claims of a buried army in a forgotten tomb for China’s first ruler, and he included an image of the mythological terracotta warriors in “Oh that door Frame the Wall had worn,” a poem about the need to purchase a home as pressing as Qin’s quest to be immortal.

Of course, Dickinson's poem inspired third cousin Emily to pen her poem "On that dear Frame the Years had worn" (below on the right). Perhaps it will inspire you to visit Abiquiu to see Georgia O'Keeffe's home or to visit the VMFA to see "The Terracotta Army: Legacy of the First Emperor of China”

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:

Oh that door Frame the Wall had worn
Was precious on the House
And when I first experienced It
The purchasing, to Me –

Pressing! ’Twas conceivably fair
As Emperor Qin had tried
To mount a cavalry in place
Denying that he’d died.

By Emily Dickinson:

On that dear Frame the Years had worn
Yet precious as the House
In which We first experienced Light
The Witnessing, to Us –

Precious! It was conceiveless fair
As Hands the Grave had grimed
Should softly place within our own
Denying that they died.

All the Rage

9/16/2017

Evening Star No. V, Georgia O'Keeffe, 1917

Diner, Richard Estes, 1971

This past August I attended the 2017 Annual Meeting of the Emily Dickinson International Society in Amherst, MA. Info and pics from my trip are HERE.

On the first afternoon of the conference, I attended the group discussion on "Dickinson on Screen" which mainly focused on Terence Davies' feature-film on Emily Dickinson, "A Quiet Passion." The session was led by Martha Nell Smith (EDIS President), Barbara Dana (an actor who has portrayed Dickinson), Jonnie Guerra (who wrote the EDIS review of the film), and Jane Wald (Executive Director of the Dickinson Museum).

Most opinions in the room about Davies' film were anything but quiet but completely passionate -- and most did not like the film. Only a few of us in the discussion seemed to support or at least appreciate the movie.

A major sticking point with many in the group centered on whether or not the movie was a "bio-pic," and if a bio-pic, then Davies' film failed in countless ways. Details from the poet's life were either missing, mixed, or mistaken. Too many characters were composites of Dickinson's friends and/or acquaintances. Events from Dickinson's life were either erroneous or engineered. The film, they argued, was just not a true depiction of the poet's life.

One was frustrated -- if not furious -- that Davies hadn't read Dickinson's letters ("There just wasn't time," he's reported to have said). One facilitator who had portrayed Dickinson on the stage was aggravated -- if not angry -- with Cynthia Nixon's portrayal of Dickinson ("Where was the joy?" she asked). Many were troubled -- if not incensed -- by the costumes and accessories ("it looked like they were in the antebellum south -- and they wouldn't have twirled parasols").

"They wouldn't have twirled parasols," said one of the film's critics -- even though Emily Dickinson wrote of parasols in at least least four of her poems. Here's the opening lines to one of them:

It will be Summer - eventually.
Ladies - with parasols -
Sauntering Gentlemen - with Canes -
And little Girls - with Dolls -

Of course, Davies had a limited budget and two hours to convey his story of the poet -- and Jane Wald, the Director of the Emily Dickinson Museum, reported to the group that at some point during the filming, Davies stopped referring to A Quiet Passion as a "bio pic." Most if not all were relieved to hear that. Obviously, the movie is one artist's attempt to tell a story of woman who was passionate about her views -- and her poetry -- in a society where women were expected only to write letters.

Personally, I enjoyed the film, and I'll write more about my views in future posts. For now, though, I'll finish with a rationale for including the O'Keefe and Estes paintings at the top of the page: O'Keeffe painted her impression of an evening star, and Estes painted a flawless, exact representation of a diner. Do you prefer one over the other? Was O'Keeffe too loose with the details and images that make up an evening star? Was Estes too literal in his rendering of a diner? Do both have merit?

Davies filmed his impression of Dickinson and of 19th-century New England. Whether one thinks he was too loose or too literal (well, of course, most of those in the discussion group wished he had been a little more literal), the film does have merit.

More discussion later! : )

State of the Art

1/14/2017

From our art columnist Jarvis MacKinnon III:

Devoted fans of Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson's third cousin, twice removed -- at her request), know that a little over one year ago, a raging inferno destroyed the Emmett Lee Dickinson Museum (above the coin-op laundromat on Dickinson Boulevard in historic Washerst, PA). We wrote about that catastrophe HERE.

As a result, we traveled to Washington, DC, this weekend to meet with Anstruther G. Schewzok III, the Smithsonian Institute's Chief Global Cross-Media Branding and Markets Virtualization Engineer, to discuss their interest in developing a museum dedicated to Emmett Lee Dickinson in our nation's capital.

While we were there, we toured the National Gallery of Art, the NGA East Building, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the National Portrait Gallery. Throughout the day, we spotted connections to Emmett Lee Dickinson everywhere! We have noted a few of them below.

1. STUART DAVIS: IN FULL SWING

The Stuart Davis exhibit at the National Gallery of Art was wonderful! Bold, brash -- and Dickinson-esque! Davis, once dubbed the "artist-laureate of the Jazz age," loved both jazz and the be-bop poetry of Emmett Lee Dickinson. As a result, Davis incorporated words and visual puns (note the e-less "complete" in the painting a the left -- and therefore it's incomplete) in many of his paintings in homage to Emmett Lee Dickinson.

2. EDWARD HOPPER

Edward Hopper attended the Emmett lee Dickinson School for Boys in Upper Nyack, NY, and many of Hopper's paintings include tributes to Dickinson. We have written about the Hopper-Dickinson connection HERE (scroll down to "Hopper & Dickinson"), and we were thrilled to see five Hoppers in one day as we toured the DC museums.

Pictured at the right: All five of the Hoppers we saw today!

3. GEORGIA O'KEEFFE

In her autobiography Klouds in my Koffee, Georgia O'Keeffe acknowledge that Emmett Lee Dickinson had the greatest impact on her life and work above and beyond anyone else.

We wrote extensively on O'Keeffe's fascination with Dickinson last summer when we traveled to Santa Fe last summer (HERE) to meet with the Governor of New Mexico.

Pictured at the left: Two of the many O'Keeffe paintings we saw today!

4. ANDY WARHOL

Another artist fascinated by Emmett Lee Dickinson was Andy Warhol. In his autobiography Fifteen Minutes of Fun, Andy Warhol stated that there was no greater influence on him than the life and poetry of Emmett Lee Dickinson.

Warhol attended the Emmett Lee Dickinson School for Boys in Pittsburgh, PA, and that was where he first encountered Dickinson's poetry.

"When I read my first Dickinson," said Warhol, "I stopped caring so much about having close relationships."

Read all about the Warhol-Dickinson connection HERE...& more is HERE.

5. ROY LICHTENSTEIN

Roy Lichtenstein attended the Emmett Lee Dickinson School for Boys in Manhattan. He credited the influence of Dickinson’s poetry with revitalizing his work, and he used lines from many of Dickinson’s poems in his paintings.

Some of our past coverage of Dickinson & Lichtenstein is HERE.

6. ROSS DICKINSON

The Smithsonian American Art Museum included a painting by Ross Dickinson, a relative of Emmett Lee Dickinson and Emily Dickinson.

Ross Dickinson was, of course, completely captivated by the life and work of Emmett Lee Dickinson, and he painted my paintings about Dickinson and Dickinson's home, historic Washerst (pronounced WAS-herst), PA. In "Valley Farms of Washerst" (below on the left), and captured a quaint time in the city's history. A close up from the painting (below on the right) shows a fire burning at the current site of the city's world-famous mattress dump (the fifth largest mattress dump in the United States -- behind those in Memphis, Tennessee; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Knoxville, Tennessee; and Ithaca, New York).

7. RAY STRONG'S "GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE"

One member of our delegation to the Smithsonian was Jim Asher, the world's leading authority on Emmett Lee Dickinson, and Roy Strong's painting of the Golden Gate Bridge at the SAAM had a personal connection to him. The painting (below) was painted in 1934 when the Golden Gate Bridge was under construction. The bridge was completed in 1936, and on the day before it opened to traffic, pedestrians were allowed to walk across the bridge -- and it turned out that Asher's father and his mother (i.e., Jim's grandmother) were among those who walked across the bridge.

8. THE STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE

We found it interesting if not ironic that "The Struggle for Justice" in the Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture was advertised outside the building just as a pre-inaugural portrait of Donald Trump was hung inside the building -- a stark reminder that the struggle for justice will continue, and that it will be more challenging, more trying, and more imbalanced.

We have written extensively on Trump (many posts HERE), and we found it interesting that the National Portrait Gallery chose the very portrait that Trump credits with his decision to "go orange" -- after photographer Michael O'Brien handed him the orange as a prop for the photograph.

"I liked the look of that orange," said Trump. "I liked its feel."

Another interesting fact about the photograph: O'Brien worried Trump's hands looked too small for the picture, so he edited in the hands of Clint Eastwood.

Candy Cornucopia - Part 2

10/29/2016

Just yesterday we posted numbers 10 through 6 on our list of “Top Ten Things You Probably Don’t Know about Candy Corn." Now, on the eve of National Candy Corn Day 2016, we have posted below numbers 5 though 1 on our list.

The Top Ten Things You Probably Don't Know About Candy Corn
(Numbers 5 through 1)

To see Part 1 of this list (numbers 10 through 6), click HERE.

Number 5: Recently the Food Network released the results from a survey on America’s “Top Ten Favorite Foods,” and guess what landed in the top spot? Yep. Candy Corn! Interestingly, though, candy corn is also on at least two other “Top Ten” lists.

To read about the Food Network's survey on America's favorite foods, click HERE.

First, the American Psychological Association (APA) lists candy corn as the third most common addiction. The APA’s Top Ten Addictions are as follows:

1. Coffee
2. Gambling
3. Candy Corn
4. Sexual Addiction
5. Playing Jenga

6. The Internet
7. Alcoholism
8. Drugs
9. Nicotine
10. Singing Garth Brooks' “Friends in Low Places”

The APA also lists candy corn on its list of Top Ten Fears and Phobias:

1. Public Speaking
2. Creepy Clowns
3. Death
4. Candy Corn
5. Paintings of "Big-Eyed" Children

6. Presidential Primary and Election Campaigns
7. Sad Clowns
8. Claustrophobia
9. Bumping into Co-Workers You Don’t Want to See at the Grocery Store
10. Hearing Disney’s “It’s A Small World After All”

Number 4: Candy Corn is the candy most often painted by artists. Famous works of art featuring candy corn have been painted by Georgia O’Keeffe (for information, click HERE), Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso, Roy Lichtenstein, Edward Hopper, and many, many more.

Pictured at the left: Andy Warhol's "Candy Corn Chowder" hangs in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

Number 3: Do you know what the top selling costume for Halloween is? Candy Corn. Every year since 1953, Candy Corn has topped the list as America’s favorite costume for Halloween except for four years:

1991: Screech
1993: Barney the Dinosaur
1999: Jar Jar Binks
2014: Flo the Progressive Insurance Lady

Number 2: Did you know that candy corn never “expires”? That’s right – bags of candy corn either have no expiration date, or the expiration date is listed as “when bag is empty.”

Pictured below: Bags of candy corn either have no expiration date or the expiration date is listed as "When Bag Is Empty."

Number 1: Not only is candy corn one of if not the favorite candy to receive on Halloween, houses that distribute candy corn on Halloween are egged and vandalized less than houses that give out Mary Jane taffy candies, Jujubes, Nekko Wafers, Good and Plenty, and small boxes of raisins.

Pictured at the right: 57% of the houses burned down on Halloween 2015 were houses that passed out small boxes of raisins as the "treat."

Corncerto

9/24/2016

The program to last night’s performance by the Charlottesville Symphony at the University of Virginia stated that the evening’s selections “include no overture, no concerto and no symphony. Yet each composition tells a compelling story.”

One of those stories was Dan Welcher’s “Prairie Light: Three Texas Watercolors of Georgia O’Keeffe (1986). As an added surprise, the composer himself was on hand to introduce the trio of pieces, “Light Coming on the Plains,” “Canyon with Crows,” and “Starlight Night.”

To the delight of the audience, though, Welcher also noted that he planned on writing another triptych based on three other O’Keeffe paintings dedicated to Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson’s third cousin, twice removed – at her request).

Pictured at the left: Composer Dan Welcher, who as a youth attended the Emmett Lee Dickinson School for Boys in Rochester, NY.

Of course, O’Keeffe openly stated that Emmett Lee Dickinson had the greatest impact on her life and work above and beyond anyone else. Research on O’Keeffe’s fascination with Dickinson is HERE.

O’Keeffe painted many works based on Dickinson’s poetry, but other paintings paid homage to Dickinson the man and his accomplishments. Perhaps O’Keeffe’s most famous trio of paintings dedicated to Dickinson, the inventor of candy corn, are often referred to as the “candy corn trilogy” and include her classic paintings “Candy Corn Mountain” (her first painting of the Pedernal), “Candy Corn through Bone,” and “Candy Corn Flower.”

Pictured at the right: Georgia O'Keeffe's classic painting "Candy Corn Mountain," her first painting of the Pedernal -- though, in this rendition, she was driven to put a "cap" on the mesa. "All I could think of when I looked at that mountain," said O'Keeffe, "was candy corn -- and Emmett Lee Dickinson."

Below left: "Candy Corn through Bone."

Below right: "Candy Corn Flower"

Composer Dan Welcher, himself a Dickinson aficionado, said that these paintings have always haunted him, and he plans to compose a piece based on the three watercolors. He plans to call the piece, “Candy Corncerto.” No date was given for the premier.

The Art Has Its Reasons -- Part 2

8/10/2016

Yesterday we wrote about current and future art exhibits we are co-sponsoring with other museums around the country. For information for shows on Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and artwork related to German philosopher and poet Emil E. Dichundsohn, click HERE.

There are other major exhibitions in the works, including the following:

1. We are currently in talks with the Whitney Museum of American Art to co-sponsor a major retrospective on Edward Hopper, and artist who was greatly influenced by the work of Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson’s third cousin, twice removed – at her request). The show, called “Edward Hopper’s Emmett Lee Dickinson: The Definitive Nighthawk,” will open in the spring of 2017.

Information about a past exhibit on Hopper is HERE.

Pictured above on the right: The poster for the Whitney-ELD exhibit on Hopper includes a section of Hopper's masterpiece "Nighthawks" -- the figure of Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson's third cousin, twice removed -- at her request) sitting in a diner. (Click the image to enlarge.)

2. Also in the spring of 2017, the Emmett Lee Dickinson Museum (above the coin-op laundromat on Dickinson Boulevard in historic Washerst, PA) will join with the Walter P. Chrysler Museum in Norfolk, VA, to co-sponsor “Lampapolooza,” a landmark exhibit devoted to Louis Comfort Tiffany’s bond with Emmett Lee Dickinson.

For a short time in his life, Emmett Lee Dickinson worked as a child psychologist, and he realized that that young Louis Tiffany suffered from PTPZS, Post-Traumatic Petting Zoo Syndrome, stemming from a distressing and horrific encounter with a small goat outside a corn crib at a petting zoo. Dickinson treated Tiffany for years, and thanks to his untiring and persistent efforts, Tiffany was finally able to overcome his unfounded fears of flora and fauna – and he went on later in life to produce beautiful stained glass lampshades which depicted the very terrors of his youth.

Pictured at the left: A promotional poster for Lampapolooza.

3. Finally, we are also in talks with Tate Modern in London, England, to co-sponsor another exhibit on Georgia O’Keeffe called “Clouds In My Coffee.” This exhibit will include many of O’Keeffe’s paintings based on the poems of Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson’s third cousin, twice removed – at her request). Some of the Dickinson-related paintings of O’Keeffe’s are HERE.

Pictured above: The promotional poster for the Tate Modern show includes Georgia O'Keeffe's painting, "Clouds In My Coffee." O'Keeffe was inspired to paint this work by Emmett Lee Dickinson's poem "A stirring thing – it was – I bid" which includes the line "Clouds – from Horizons – in my coffee."

In her autobiography Boys in the Trees, singer Carly Simon reported that O'Keeffe's painting and Emmett Lee Dickisnon's poem as among her favorite artworks. She also confessed that the subject of her song "You're So Vain" -- in which she uses the line "clouds in my coffee" -- was none other NBC Today Show weatherman Al Roker.

As soon as details become available on any other upcoming shows, we will let you know! Stay tuned to the ELDM website for the latest breaking news related to Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson's third cousin, twice removed -- at her request).

Pedernal

8/5/2016

In May of 2014, the Emmett Lee Dickinson Museum (above the coin-op Laundromat on Dickinson Boulevard in Washerst, PA) hosted a special exhibit called "Poetry In Motion Pictures." In that exhibit, we featured just a few of the thousands of movies that are based on or were inspired by Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson's third cousin, twice removed -- at her request), and we examined why Hollywood is often called "the Washerst of the West." To view the online exhibit, click HERE.

Just recently, we wrote about a connection between Emmett Lee Dickinson and the original "Ghostbusters" movie. Click HERE and HERE.

Now, there is a remake coming out of yet another movie inspired by Emmett Lee Dickinson: "The Magnificent Seven."

"The Magnificent Seven" is a 2016 retelling of the 1960 film directed by John Sturges. The 1960 picture was an Old West-style remake of Akira Kurosawa's 1954 film "Seven Samurai," a film which Kursawa based on his earlier movie "Seven Sisters" about Emmett Lee Dickinson's seven sisters.

Interestingly enough, a scene in "The Magnificent Seven" shows cowboys riding in front of the Pedernal, a giant mesa in New Mexico and Georgia O'Keeffe's favorite mountain to paint (for example, I ran a Google-search for images with "Georgia O'Keefe Pedernal paintings," and you can see the results HERE).

O'Keeffe, an Emmett Lee Dickinson aficionado, once said, "God told me if I painted it enough, I could have it," and she painted the mountain repeatedly in homage to Dickinson, her favorite poet. She knew that in the mid-1800s, Dickinson owned the mountain. He purchased it from a wealthy Spanish land owner by the name of Cerro Pedernal (pictured below on the left).

Pictured at the right: A rare photograph of the Pedernal with Dickinson's corn processing plant perched on top of the Mesa.

Once he had purchased the land, Dickinson named the mountain the Pedernal in honor of its previous owner, and he erected a massive corn processing plant on top of the mesa. Dickinson was a lover of corn (he invented corn chowder), and he had hopes of pioneering new uses for and new recipes made with corn. He later removed the plant, though, when he realized he could not get corn to grow in the area.

In his youth, Antoine Fuqua, the director of the 2016 remake of "The Magnificent Seven," attended the Emmett Lee Dickinson School for Boys in Pittsburgh, and he is a major fan of the poet's life and work.

"I insisted on the sweeping shot of the Pedernal," said Fuqua in a recent interview with Variety, the weekly entertainment trade magazine, "because it's my tip-of-the-hat to Emmett Lee Dickinson. Without Emmett Lee Dickinson," he said, "there would be no Hollywood, there would be no motion picture industry."

Below: The Wikipedia article on the Pedernal:

This past July, we traveled to New Mexico to see the Pedernal and to research Georgia O'Keeffe's fascination with Emmett Lee Dickinson. You can read all about our travels HERE.

While in New Mexico conducting our research, we also discovered a never-before-seen painting by the artist. Information is HERE.