Georgia and Anita
The Lifelong Friendship of Georgia O'Keeffe and Anita Pollitzer
About eminent painter Georgia O’Keeffe and Anita Pollitzer, a trailblazer of the American suffragist movement, Liza Bennett’s rich biography Georgia and Anita covers a dynamic, tragic friendship.
O’Keeffe and Pollitzer forged an intimate friendship at a time when both aspired to become major artists. Their early correspondence ballooned into a torrent of letters, many of which are excerpted throughout the book. Though the women’s close connection endured thanks to their complementary personalities, their lives took quite different turns. While O’Keeffe was feted as a rising art world star, Pollitzer was recruited into the dangerous world of suffragist activism under the guidance of the National Woman’s Party.
Alfred Stieglitz, a brilliant but troubled photographer, began as Anita’s mentor and ended as Georgia’s husband. Stieglitz championed O’Keeffe’s work, but his open infidelities created a rift that also reached the women’s friendship. Toward the end of their lives, the women’s connection fissured; they parted ways in silence. Both women rose to national renown, chafing against male-dominated cultures that were often unwilling to receive them as equals.
While the narrative spans several decades, it skips years between chapters, sometimes resulting in terse transitions. But it is replete with slow-burn triumphs, too, covering art world gatherings full of upper-crust Manhattanites with masterful tension drawing illuminating contrasts between these and the moments of quiet revelation that each woman discovered in her work. It introduces subtle notes of discord between the women early on, allowing their disputes to ebb only to resurface in later chapters.
The biography Georgia and Anita covers the decades-long friendship between two formidable intellectuals at the heart of twentieth-century cultural life.
Reviewed by
Isaac Randel
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