A Woman on Paper: Georgia O'Keeffe

In this affectionate memoir of her good friend Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986), the late Pollitzer, who played a leading role in the Women's Movement, weaves together letters, her own and others' reminiscences, as well as perceptive writings by a number of critics to illuminate the oeuvre of one of the most important American artists of the 20th century. Pollitzer and O'Keeffe met in 1914 in an art class, and it was Pollitzer who introduced O'Keeffe's drawings to photographer and gallery owner Alfred Stieglitz, thus sparking a legendary and dynamic collaboration. In her charming look at O'Keeffe's girlhood on a Wisconsin farm and in Williamsburg, Va., Pollitzer draws on the memories of neighbors and friends to create a portrait of a young woman who was independent, quietly confident, hardworking and brave. From O'Keeffe's first exhibit at Stieglitz's gallery in 1916 to the 1950s, when the memoir ends, Pollitzer focuses primarily on O'Keeffe's arther smaller nature studies, her signature giant flowers and the work inspired by her beloved New Mexico desert. The reader might wish Pollitzer would have delved into the personal morethe relationship between O'Keeffe and Stieglitz calls out for greater comment. But instead, the author gathers discerning, eye-opening statements on O'Keeffe's art from critics, artists like Stieglitz and Charles Demuth, and from O'Keeffe herself, whose correspondence, comments and exhibit introductions eloquently and movingly express the awesome love of life and the natural world that inspired her art. Photos not seen by PW. (July)