The banner touts "Georgia O'Keeffe" in large letters. She gets top billing over Thomas Hart Benton. The other exhibitions get no billing until you get the information booklet. Once inside, however, one is soon underwhelmed if one came to see an O'Keeffe exhibit. In the small print, under her name, it says "and her Times." American Modernism makes a good showing here but don't expect to see much in the way of works by O'Keeffe. One serendipity was a lesser-seen photograph by Ansel Adams, although dimmed lighting kept me from enjoying the depth of the picture.
The docents were quite friendly and helpful if one had a question, but seemed to be very occupied with two groups of school children on tour. I left my questions alone in an effort to move on to the other galleries ahead of the gaggles of noisy youth.
I very much enjoyed the Thomas Hart Benton exhibit. His illustrations were a true delight, with plenty of history in the descriptions. Other exhibits included numerous photograph collections, no longer on display. Many of the photos I also enjoyed. (Some of the photos were just plain weird, but that is my humble opinion.) It was a great disappointment to me that the lighting was so dim. I realize there was an effort to preserve photographs but the dimness brought about a lot of squinting on my part. So, if you have very good eyes, you may enjoy whatever the Frist has to offer.
Georgia O’Keeffe and Her Times: American Modernism from the Lane Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Thomas Hart Benton in Story and Song run from October 2, 2009 to January 31, 2010.
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