Georgia and Albert

The gallery, as most are, was sparsely furnished with only a few benches. It was dominated by three huge paintings and peppered with many smaller works. In front of one, stood two sorority girls who were in heated debate. Rodney, seeing an opening to impress them, sauntered over to look at the painting and await the question he knew would come. He was right. One of the girls turned and asked "Can you tell if this is a man's or a woman's painting?" Not the question he'd expected.

"Well," He said earnestly, examining the huge canvas with its large bold strokes of deep blue on a background of fantastic yellow patches. "It looks very strong. The paint is applied with a wild vitality. I'd say it's a man's work."

"I told you so." said the first girl who's name was Amy. At least that's what her sweater said.

"Well the label says Stacy Conover. That's a girls name." Complained the second girl.

"Jan, it can be a guy's name too."

This sort of argument occurs at almost every gallery. It isn't easy to settle either. Art done by men does not always look masculine nor does art by women always look feminine. The question that is posed is: Can you tell the difference between a mans art and a woman's art? I personally thought it through and decided I didn't have enough information. After digging through the library's encyclopedias, art history books, biographies and folios, it was clear that the original question was too broad. It just is not possible to give an answer on this much subject matter. With this in mind I set parameters and singled out two artists to be my subjects.

Ideally the artist should have similar backgrounds as far as family and schooling. Also they need to have lived during the same period. Similar subjects and related media are best. Also they should have worked in the same locale at least for part of their careers.

Hunting down and ferreting out a pair of artists to fit this description was not easy. I finally settled on two of the most important artists of the American Avant Garde, Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz. As strange as it may seem this husband and wife shared many aspects. Enough to fit my parameters anyway.

Georgia and Alfred were both born into large, wealthy, immigrant families. Georgia, the oldest O'Keefe daughter and Alfred the oldest son of the Stieglitz. The O'Keefes were dominated by strong aloof matriarchs while the Stieglitz were lead by the father, Edward, described as "hot-tempered" and "autocratic". The pattern seems to break here but in fact it holds up better because of it. Both of our artist's families were lead by a person of their own sex. In addition to this they were closer to their other parent. Thus the pattern holds.

Both families were much concerned about the children's education. Georgia's mother Ida may have taken such a keen interest because of her aristocratic background, her father was a Hungarian count who had fled into exile for his political beliefs and her belief that she had ended her own education to early. She saw Georgia's schooling as a way to enhance her station in life. Regardless of the reasons Georgia spent many of her school days in private institutes. She was a bright student and a brilliant artist. It was Mrs. Willis, Her art teacher at Chatham Episcopal Institute in Chatham, Virginia who allowed her the freedom she needed to continue wanting to make art. When the other girls complained about how Georgia would waist time not working, Mrs. Willis would reply, "When the spirit moves Georgia, she can do more in a day than you can do in a week." Mrs. Willis was also instrumental in convincing Georgia's mother to send her to art school. So ti was that in September 1905 Georgia was sent off to the Art Institute of Chicago to refine her skills. There she was an excellent student though she was already starting to question why she was doing the art that she was. She would also attend the Art Students League in New York.

Edward Stieglitz, being accustomed to quality, chose only the best schools for his children. Alfred was sent to Charlier Institute, a fine private school in New York City, until his parents decided it would be more democratic and less costly if he went to a public school. Alfred, however, did not suffer from this change. He, like Georgia, was supported by an understanding teacher. "At school I refused to memorize, to recite poetry or anything else by heart." he said "My teacher of elocution and declamation was in a quandary about what to do. Since I was first in my class in every other subject as well