GEORGIA O’KEEFFE

Georgia O’Keeffe transformed desert planes into abstract color-fields, turned the flowers that grew in the heat into psychedelic explorations of form and movement, and skulls that dotted the landscapes into eerie motifs of the American Southwest. She was, and remains in the popular imagination, an artist so deeply tied to the land, and particularly that of her adopted New Mexico, that to imagine her is to do in the context of the great American landscape. So it is perhaps surprising that towards the end of her life, she turned her focus to the world above. Flying in planes around the world, she gazed out the window and saw new landscapes made from billowing clouds and horizons dancing in shades of blue made visible in the thin air. Gone are the earth tones of her seminal works, replaced by whites, blues, and peaches in calming expressions of scale. Sky Above Clouds IV was a significant undertaking, measuring more than twenty four feet across. It’s monumental size engulfs and invites us to stop and look, to lean our heads against the window and stare out into the expanse.

MARC CHAGALL

Chagall’s work is most often associated with vivid color, fantastic subjects rendered in lively brushstrokes, and playful romance. His work is spiritual, drawing on folklore and mythology to explore themes of love, celebration, and, in this case, persecution. White Crucifixion is the first in a series Chagall painted drawing an allegory between the persecution of Jesus Christ and the persecution of the Jewish People under the hands of the Nazis. The color that populated Chagall’s work has all but drained away and in its place are pale greys and empty whites - flashes of fire, and the dye of traditional Jewish robes seem faded, though hanging on in a world that has lost its beauty. Chagall casts Jesus as a Jewish martyr, and in doing so reframes the Christian ideology used by the Nazi Party against them, highlighting the hypocrisy and atrocity of the persecutors, In his depiction of the destruction of villages, violent attacks, and government sanctions, he breathes new life into the most told story of the Western World, finding a pertinent and essential relevance in a time when a caring God must have seemed so far away.

HENRI MATISSE

Matisse had spend the decade preceding this work systematically dismantling centuries of art historical traditions. He revolutionised colour, perspective and form in bold works that almost single-handedly ushered in a new modernism, to rave reviews from the academic, artistic establishment and criticism and disdain from much of the general public. So when, after this revolutionary run of creation, he escaped Paris to settle in an isolated area of Nice and began to paint a series of works that seem almost fit for a postcard, the reaction was one of surprise above all. The paintings return to a figurative impressionism, and to many they seemed a betrayal of the new world that Matisse himself had begun, a step backwards away from progress and challenge and into safety, comfort and mundanity. Matisse, however, saw things differently; “I am seeking a new synthesis”, he said, “In which I have combined all that I have gained recently with what I knew and could do before.”