It is not surprising
that the depiction of gender signals is a more powerful stimulus to
male artistic creativity when bodily intimacy arises through a
sexual pairing of artist and model. There are several examples of
the powerful influence of pair bonding in the opening up of
productive private avenues into the world of nature. Notable
pairings are Picasso, and his succession of marital models, and the
marriage of art-photographer Alfred Steiglitz and the artist
Georgia O’Keeffe. The latter pair fed upon each
other’s love to become, as individuals, two of the most
significant artists to have worked in America during the twentieth
century. Steiglitz’s love, his infatuation, perhaps even a
touch of possessiveness, can be felt in his sexual images of
O’Keeffe. These partook of her premarital interest in
discovering sexual imagery in the common place things of nature,
her willingness to display her own gender signals to her husband,
and Steiglitz’s skill to read his wife’s body through
its gender signals. There is biological significance in the fact
that his nude shots are carefully framed to exclude head and
extremities. A face carries very powerful message in its own
right. Throughout the ages, female nudes are either depicted
with stylised expressionless faces or as headless
torsos.
The artistic
partnership of O’Keeffe and Steiglitz went far beyond a
mutual interaction through sexual imagery. As lovers
they shared an intimate and creative life that is much more
difficult to describe or assess. It is to be seen in
their wide range of common subject matter and stylistic
interchange. Together, yet separately, they enjoyed the
rewards of an exceptionally productive union, sometimes working
side by side on identical themes- apples, landscapes, the sky and
the cityscapes of New York. Eventually, it seems that
O’Keeffe’s gains owed less to the forces of sexual
attraction than to intellectual fusion. She eventually admitted
that at the height of their mutual creativity she began to realise
that she loved the artist, perhaps as a teacher, more than the
man. The general point is that sex can heighten intellectual
development although it is a phenomenon that is little
understood. Mutual reinforcement of creativity in sexual
partnerships is masked by conventional expressions of male and
female role-play.
