I hadn’t intended to write about the Georgia O’Keefe show now at MOMA, through August 13, because, well, what new insights might be discovered about Georgia O’Keefe? But the power of this exhibition compels me to say something, if for no other reason than to help motivate anyone who hasn’t yet seen the show, to see it, if possible. Since most of the work is early – from between 1916-1922 – and is represented by charcoal drawings, watercolors and pastels, most of the work is fairly unknown. Here we sense an urgency, an intensity to experiment, a brave exploration to invent new vocabularies, a purity, and a determination to find expression for her visual sensations. Some of the work is magical, some is mysterious, but just about all is intensely felt – and also suffused with a glow of light that in some ways relates to her mature work. What becomes clear from these pieces is how early she understood the power of gradations of light against dark, and how naturally she orchestrated these tones throughout the page. Though her color is glorious, she clearly structured her art not through chromatic color, but through monochromatic tone. Typically, O’Keefe would find an observed motif, and then experiment with different media and multiple approaches to that motif, trying to find the pictorial language that best expressed its essence. Generally, through the progression of a series, the work becomes more abstract, often more ephemeral, more a miracle of sheer creation. The much-reproduced Evening Star series is a good example. Initially, relatively simple horizontal bands of color represent sea, land and sky, but the final rendition is pure color, shape and the light of air, with little obvious reference to physical landscape. In another room, the watercolor portraits of Mark Strand barely suggest a human form, let alone portraits in any traditional sense. Apparently, O’Keefe felt they were absolutely realistic, though she also stated she wanted to represent his curves, which she does indeed do beautifully. Perhaps her equating shape and movement to realism gives us clues as to how deeply she believed in the power of painterly, abstract form, at a time in art history when the very concept of abstract form hardly existed at all.