Commissioned by 516 ARTS and Artist Lab: Art Meets History in New Mexico, for Art Meets History: Technologies of the Spirit (June - September 2022) curated by Ric Kasini Kadour and Alicia Inez Guzmán, PhD.
Curatorial statement:
“Artists use their knowledge of a place to shape and inform other people’s understanding of it. Others often use artists and their legacy to construct a sense of place or to market a place to others. This is a type of social technology. In conversation with the O’Keeffe Museum, Josh T. Franco reflects critically on the legacy of artist Georgia O’Keeffe and invites the viewer to consider the artist’s influence on the cultural identity of New Mexico. Stone Resting on Georgia O’Keeffe (Their sky fell to the sound of laughter) cleaves the thoughtfulness of the artist’s longtime inhabitation of the area from the thoughtless consumption of her work and persona by contemporary audiences and cultural promoters.”
IMAGE: photograph by Daniel Ulibarri, courtesy of 516 ARTS
IMAGE: photograph by Daniel Ulibarri, courtesy of 516 ARTS
12 x 12” | Cover, ARTFORUM (November 1970), marble chips, acrylic
IMAGE: photograph by Daniel Ulibarri, courtesy of 516 ARTS
42 x 34” | acid-free matte board, project slides (film removed), quartz, acrylic, colored pencil, watercolor
*this cloud silhouette present throughout work is excerpted from Georgia O’Keeffe, Sky Above Clouds IV, 1965
36 x 17” | cabinet-grade plywood, acrylic, quartz
1 title page, 12 studies, each 8 x 8” | Omicron archival pen, watercolor on Fluid 140 lb. cold-press finish watercolor paper
*Shown with three photographs, courtesy of Albuquerque Museum of Art, Photography Archive:
Exhibition copy, “Georgia O’Keeffe holding stone” by Ralph Looney, 1962, silver negative, 3.5 x4.5625 inches, gift of the Estate of Ralph and Clarabel Looney.
Exhibition copy, “Georgia O'Keeffe living room stones” by Ralph Looney, 1962, silver negative, gift of the Estate of Ralph and Clarabel Looney.
Exhibition copy, “Georgia O’Keeffe standing at cloud painting” by Ralph Looney, 1962, silver negative, gift of the Estate of Ralph and Clarabel Looney.
IMAGE: photograph by Daniel Ulibarri, courtesy of 516 ARTS
Approx. 48 x 72” | Artist’s worn black outfit (Ballroom Marfa cap, Jungmaven tee, Levi’s jeans, Birkenstocks), plywood, acrylic, marble chips, mp3 audio file (40-second excerpt, Cody Hartley, “Georgia O’Keeffe, Modern and American,” Howard E. Wooden Lecture, Wichita Art Museum, April 21 2016)
*Shown with Georgia O’Keeffe’s black Emsley suit, courtesy of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
*Listen to 40 seconds (9:12 - 9:52) of Hartley lecture here.
IMAGE: photograph by Daniel Ulibarri, courtesy of 516 ARTS
In coordination with Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, I spent the night at O’Keeffe’s home on Ghost Ranch outside Abiqui, New Mexico.
IMAGE: Still from movement #10, Dancing at Ghost Ranch, 2022