Georgia O’Keeffe's Firsts

Hibiscus With Plumeria, Georgia O'Keeffe

Many people consider Georgia O’Keeffe the first female artist to gain recognition in America. The artist was also called the premier female artist of the 20th century, a title she considered sexist.

Born November 15, 1887, O’Keeffe became known for her signature style that fused abstract and realistic into bold still life compositions. She was an innovative artists who incorporated a modernist style with minimal aesthetic. She has become know for her large paintings of desert scenery, close up views of flowers and bones.

O'Keeffe had an ongoing relationship with the art dealer Alfred Stieglitz and she would often send work to him to exhibit. O'Keeffe had her first solo exhibition of charcoals, oils, and watercolors at his gallery in 1917.

Simon Evans First New York Solo Gallery Exhibition

Simon Evans, Symptoms of Loneliness, 2009
Pen, paper, scotch tape, correction fluidm 28 1/2 X 39 3/8 inches
Courtesy James Cohan Gallery, NY

Berlin-based artist, Simon Evans, has his first New York solo exhibition, Island Time, at James Cohan Gallery, February 20 – March 21, 2009. Previously a pro-skateboarder and writer, Evans broke into the art scene in 2003.

His drawings and collages are made from mundane materials such as found paper, scotch tape, pencil shavings and white out. Ironic, yet earnest, his drawings take the form of maps, charts, diary entries and cosmologies.

Adam Helm's First Solo Museum Show

Untitled Portrait (Vallegrande), Adam Helms, 2007. Double sided silk screen on vellum.

Adam Helm's recently had his first solo museum exhibition at the MCA, Denver. This strong show was comprised of an installation of new works on paper and a large-scale assemblage.

Loaded with political imagery, his work incorporates romantic subjects of revolution, war and the American West. He works from appropriated images of radical and extremist movements from around the world and combines them into loosely narrative works. His method of silk-screening on both sides of translucent vellum adds to the hallucinatory feel of the work.

Adam Helms was born in the United States in 1974 and currently lives and works in New York, NY. Helms received an MFA from Yale University, New Haven, CT and a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design, Providence. He has shown in group exhibitions at Ballroom Marfa, Texas; Kunsthalle und Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna, Austria and P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, NY among others. Helms was the recipient of the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award and was a recent artist in residence at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas.

Pipilotti Rist's First Solo Exhibition and First Video

© 2008 Pipilotti Rist, courtesy the artist, Luhring Augustine, and Hauser & Wirth

Pipilotti Rist, still from "Pour Your Body Out (7354 Cubic Meters)" (2008)

Swiss artist, Pipilotti Rist, whose real name is Elizabeth Charlotte, had her first solo exhibition in 1984, when she transformed Vienna’s Galerie Prottore/Stauraum into a bank branch. But, it was her first video, I’m Not the Girl Who Misses Much (1986), that really helped jump start her career. In the video she repeatedly sings an adaptation of a lyric from the Beattles song Happiness is a Warm Gun, while romping around in a black dress with her breasts exposed. She has continued to incorporate the female protagonist, nudity, and music throughout her career.

Recent exhibitions include Museum of Modern Art in New York, Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Museo Nacional de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid, and the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin, among others. Her work is in the permanent collections of such institutions as the Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.

Pollock's first break

Jackson Pollock was lucky enough to have Peggy Guggenheim visit his studio early on in his career. After a few studio visits Guggenheim invited him to have his first solo exhibition in November 1943.

The exhibition was held at Art of This Century and featured fifteen oil paintings and an unrecorded number of works on paper, all completed between 1941 and 1943. The exhibition included important works such as Guardians of the Secret, The Mad Moon-Woman, Male and Female, The Moon Woman, and The She-Wolf, plus gouaches and drawings. Prices ranged from $25 to $750. The show is the first solo exhibition by an American artist at Art of This Century gallery.

Guggenheim also gave Pollock his first commission, a mural for the entrance hall of her East 61st Street town house. Pollock had to tear down a wall in his apartment to accommodate the twenty-foot-large canvas. When it was installed in Guggenheim’s home, it was a hit.

Mary Heilmann's First NY museum retrospective

Mary Heilmann recently had her first solo exhibition and retrospective in a New York museum. The exhibition was called To Be Someone and featured work from the past 40 years, including her signature colorful paintings, a series of rolling chairs, and ceramic sculpture.

Born in 1940, Heilmann is one of the pioneering artists of her generation. Her paintings exquisitely fuse together abstraction with elements from pop culture and craft traditions.

Here’s a link to images and a press release on the show.