Georgia O'Keeffe

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I don't trust words.

Words and I are not good friends at all.

A painter using words,

it's like a baby trying to walk.

Better to let the picture speak on its own

than try to help it along with a word.

What has happened to me in the past

and how it has happened...

I don't think that's anyone's business,

except my own.

You just look at the paintings,

see what you can see in the paintings.

That's all you have a right to see.

That's all I will allow you to see.

So, there.

Someone else's vision will never be

as good as your own vision of yourself.

Live and die with it.

Because in the end, that's all you have.

Lose it, and you lose yourself

and everything else.

I should have listened to myself.

Extraordinary, aren't they?

Drawn by a woman.

Yes.

- Please take them down.

- Beg your pardon?

You heard me.

Yes, I did, but...

No, I will not take them down.

And who the devil do you think you are,

anyway?

I am Georgia O'Keeffe,

and these are my drawings...

...and I think that... No, I am sure...

You never asked my permission

to show them, did you?

- No, I did not ask your permission.

- Well, then you'll have to take them down.

Do you have any idea what you have done

in these pictures?

Of course I do. Do you think I'm an idiot?

No, I think you are a revelation.

Well, no one else seems to share

your opinion.

For God's sake, woman.

I've hung your work

next to some of the greatest artists.

...of this or any age...

Picasso, Matisse, Dove, Hartley,

Braque, Czanne.

And I've done so because I see in your work

the same raw, intuitive...

...irrational, unconscious, untutored talents

from whence all true creativity erupts...

...male or female.

And you, Miss O'Keeffe, have no more right

to withhold these pictures.

...than you have to withdraw a child

from the world...

...if you had given birth to one.

You sure can talk.

In every painting,

there is all of your life coming back at you...

...not just one flower or a piece of bone or sky.

That's just what you see at the end

when the work is finished.

But at the start,

when you look at the empty canvas...

...you see your whole life looking back at you.

I learned that from Mr. Stieglitz.

Everything I know I learned from him,

or because of him, or in spite of him.

Well, hello.

- I'll take your bag.

- Thank you.

So...

This is it.

It belongs to my niece, Elizabeth...

...but you'll be welcome to stay

as long as you want.

I work a little in here,

but I don't use that room at all.

Apart from the closet. I use it as a...

I'm sorry. These...

I shouldn't have put these on here.

I use the darkroom a little bit

for storing things and developing...

...but this will be your room.

See, I don't live here.

I live up on Madison with my family, my wife.

- I did mention I had a wife?

- Yes.

Good.

So you wouldn't be disturbed here at all.

We would schedule my work.

...so that it didn't conflict

with your creative necessities...

...and my visits would be promulgated

on your permissions.

Well...

- it's a very attractive proposition.

- Yeah, it's...

A room of my own in the city of New York.

And all it will cost me

is a few regularly scheduled visits.

- From my benefactor. Is that the idea?

- No!

No, no. I didn't mean...

I didn't mean to imply...

I believe you did.

I'm sorry, Mr. Stieglitz.

I can't help being honest.

- No.

- I don't know if it's a fault in my nature.

...or a good thing,

but I've never had any choice in the matter.

I do have a teaching position in Texas,

and they're expecting me to return.

- In Texas? Where in Texas?

- West Texas State Normal College.

Nothing is normal in Texas, Miss O'Keeffe.

But, in any case, I'll tell you flat-out,

I intend to accept your proposition.

You mean... Well, good.

But the bed belongs under the skylight.

- No, let me do that.

- Yeah.

Because, you see,

then I can lie on my back at night.

...and look at the stars circling your head,

if such an occasion should arise.

Miss O'Keeffe,

you are teasing me unmercifully.

Yes, I am, and I'm enjoying it, too.

Morning. I'm just collecting.

I want to...

Would you mind if I photographed you?

You have a beautiful face.

My mother used to put me in the back room

when company came.

- She thought I was so homely.

- Homely?

You are not homely, Miss O'Keeffe.

I'm not fishing for compliments,

Mr. Stieglitz.

I know what I look like.

You have no idea what you look like.

Mr. Stieglitz?

Put this on.

Right, now... You're a skinny little thing.

There we are. Tie it around there.

We're gonna use four bottles.

And if you'll hold that...

What was it? Four, three. That makes it 12.

Now, 12 water.

- Now feel that corner. Just feel it. Feel that?

- Yes.

That tells you that the exposed side

is underneath, and that's the bottom right.

So you can always know

that with a negative.

- All right.

- Pull that out.

And slip it in. Slip it into the water.

Just... Good. That's right.

That's good. That's good.

- It's all right?

- That comes... Yeah.

Well, look at that.

That's everything I feel about you

fixed in a moment.

Don't look at me like that.

It's not magic. It's you.

- Once again, who is it?

- O'Keeffe. Georgia O'Keeffe.

- Georgia O'Keeffe.

- Yeah, I think... I think you'll enjoy her.

They're great images,

and the colors are really great.

- Are you gonna buy anything?

- I think not.

Look at that piece over there.

Whereas the Marins

are like an orchestra run wild.

- He was destroyed by the reviews.

- Yeah.

Holder called his pictures

"great gobs of imbecility. "

Yeah, well, Holder was absolutely wrong.

Men and words.

But whenever I can't get to sleep,

I just get my husband talking like that...

...and it puts me right out.

- I'm Rebecca Strand.

- Georgia O'Keeffe.

I know.

But why the depression?

Why the half whisper, the half light,

the soft petal?

The fear of full color?

- Are we afraid?

- Yes.

- And if so, of what? Ourselves?

- Yes! Yes!

My dear, whatever do you look like?

A nun, an acolyte, a virgin at the orgy.

It's fantastic.

And the shoes.

Please promise you won't ever tell me

where they come from.

I won't. If you promise never to tell me

where you come from.

Mrs. Mabel Evans Dodge Stern.

That's three, isn't it?

I've had three husbands so far.

I collect husbands.

And you are Alfred's newest plaything.

The milkmaid from Wisconsin.

My God. He picks up lovers like olives.

Dangerous man. Absolute genius.

You're not in love with him, are you?

You are. Aren't you?

Oh, my dear, my condolences.

Well, headfirst into the fire. Why not?

Life is short.

Come on. Come meet

some of the other dogs in my kennel.

They're all bastards, every one of them.

- Paul Strand.

- Hi, Mabel.

He's one.

- And, Becca, have you met Georgia?

- Yes.

And Jean Toomer. Now, he is a poet,

he's a philosopher...

...he's absolutely gorgeous.

I'd marry him in a second.

- Except, of course, that I'm already married.

- That's never stopped you before.

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