“ To see takes time.”
The history of art is not only a history of objects, but of ways of seeing. Georgia O'Keeffe and anonymous artists from Africa and Oceania arrived at strikingly similar artistic solutions. Four ideas unite their work: distillation, monumentality, the void, and the charged object. Rather than drawing formal comparisons, this exhibition uses these concepts as a lens through which to view a carefully selected group of African and Oceanic works of art.
Distillation
Throughout her career, O'Keeffe pursued the essential. "Nothing is less real than realism," she famously observed. “It is only by selection, by elimination, by emphasis that we get at the real meaning of things." Rather than adding detail, she distilled her subjects until only their essence remained. Long before O'Keeffe, anonymous artists across Africa and Oceania had already mastered a similar visual language. Like the painter, they were not interested in faithful imitation. Rather than depicting appearances, they distilled a face to its essential geometry, a bird to its beak, an ancestor to an enduring presence, and a ritual object to its concentrated spiritual force.
Monumentality
O'Keeffe could make even the smallest object appear monumental in her paintings. An avid collector of rocks, shells and bones, she transformed these humble finds into magnificent, timeless works of art. A detail of a flower, the curve of a shell, or the opening of a bone could fill an entire canvas, inviting us to discover grandeur in what usually escapes our attention. The same principle lies at the heart of small-sized African and Oceanic works of art. Their physical scale can be modest, yet their visual impact immense. A spoon, a small figure or a ritual instrument can embody an entire cosmology. Monumentality is measured not in size but in presence.
The Void
O'Keeffe understood that emptiness possesses its own visual force. In her Pelvis series (1943-1945), she contrasted convex and concave surfaces and solid and open spaces. Her thinking was informed by Asian art theory, particularly Laurence Binyon's “The Flight of the Dragon” (1943), in which empty space is described as "no longer something not filled and left over, but something exerting an attractive power to the eye.”African and Oceanic sculptors mastered this principle long before. Openwork and carefully balanced volumes transform absence into presence. The void is never simply what is left behind; it is an active element of the composition.
The Charged Object
Most African and Oceanic sculptures were not created as works of art. They were made to be handled, carried, consulted, danced, fed or displayed during ceremonies and performances. Through ritual use, repeated handling and the passing of time, they became charged with power. Georgia O'Keeffe approached the natural world with a similar sensitivity. She surrounded herself with stones, shells and bones gathered during long walks through the New Mexico desert. The objects she collected reveal her fascination with shape, texture and the sculptural presence acquired through time and weather. Over the years she painted the skulls of horses, cows, steers, elk and rams that she displayed on the ledges, roof beams and walls of her homes. About the antlers in From the Faraway, Nearby (1937), she wrote: "These horns are not real, no deer or elk ever carried such a rack. This is instead a mythic beast, a poetic evocation of all the animals that have lived on that land... it is a statement about what endures, what transcends, what is eternal." For both O'Keeffe and the anonymous artists, objects were never merely things. They carried stories that extended far beyond their material form.
The juxtapositions in this exhibition are based not on influence, but on resonance. They celebrate a shared way of seeing that transcends geography, culture and time. For Georgia O'Keeffe and the anonymous African and Oceanic artists, seeing was never a passive act. It required attention, patience and the courage to look beyond appearances in search of what truly matters. Ultimately, ways of seeing become ways of living.