Search - Great Women Artists: Georgia O'Keefe on DVD

A really complete view of O'Keefe's work.

J. Kara Russell | Hollywood - the cinderblock Industrial cubicle | 10/23/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I have no idea how to rate this documentary. I'll give you the good the bad and the ugly.

The good is great. Incomparable. 5 The work of artist Georgia O'Keefe, seems like it must be every piece of her work shown in this clear DVD in loving and respectful presentation with plenty of time to look at each one fully. I have seen another biography of Georgia O'Keefe that was extremely well done, but that did not even show 1/3 of these works. This is like a fantastic museum tour shown just for you.

The bad is the information on Georgia herself. 3 This seems to be intentional, as they incorporate quotes of hers that "who she is and where she came from is not nearly as important as what her paintings have to say," and that words can not capture what she expresses in her art. In taking up pottery at a late age, she refers to it as learning to speak another language. Not only is there very little personal history, but there are only about 4 photos of this -highly photographed - woman, replayed throughout - most from the same few years before the death of her husband. I've other docs on her that really focus on her life and are fantastic.

The ugly: the narrator. 2, no, 3 He has a rich, resonant voice that is mellifluous and pleasant enough to put you gently to sleep. That is not helpful with a long display of paintings. What is horrible is that he frequently mispronounces words like "oeuvre" and "ephemeral." EE-FEEM-er-AL? he had to work hard to mispronounce it so badly! Yeesh, they must have given him only one recording session with no re-takes or supervision. Cheap.

This should have been titled "The Works of Georgia O'Keefe". Since the good in this DVD is her work, and it is shown fully and clearly... how can I rate it lower than 4?

"

Nice Photographs of Georgia's works.....

Sharon Shirin | Aurora, Colorado | 03/02/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I enjoyed the selection of paintings and photographs. However, I would say this was a rather sanitized version of Georgia's life. The narrator stated her happy marriage--yet it was a marriage where there were lots of difficulties. Interesting pieces of information regarding why she painted what she painted or regarding her character were ignored---I read the book; Full Bloom: The Art and Life of Georgia O'Keeffe [Hardcover] by Hunter...and I was quite impressed by all the personal information about Georgia. Georgia's life was not as sweet and blissful as the narrator's text seems to portray.



I found the visual quite effective and turned the audio portion off.

"

Beautiful pictures!

Lane Aldrich | Warrenton, VA USA | 03/12/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"What a wonderful study of an artist's work. I have long been fascinated with the work of Georgia OKeefe and this video presentation provides much of the beauty and enough of the history and background to begin to understand her and her works."