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Georgia O’Keeffe’s Folding Safari Chair (or “Bunch of Sticks” She Used for Painting in the Desert) and Archive of 18 Autograph and Typed Letters Signed by O’Keeffe to Artist Marilyn Thuma
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“Do you want it? You may have it. I’ve been meaning to have a cover made for it. The arms are shredded.”—Georgia O’Keeffe to Mym Tuma (Marilynn Thuma), July 1969

[Georgia O’Keeffe]. Folding Safari Chair. Given to artist Marilynn Thuma (aka Mym Tuma), in July 1969. 22 x 22 x 37¾ in. Made of varnished oak and tan canvas; refurbished. Minor soiling and fading to fabric. #26262 With Georgia O’Keeffe. Archive of 18 Autograph and Typed Letters Signed to Thuma, 1964-1973. Approximately 122 pp. + 21 photographs. #26261

Inventory #26262       Price: $30,000

Historical Background
While visiting artist Georgia O’Keeffe at Ghost Ranch in July 1969, Mym Tuma was surprised when O’Keeffe asked her if she wanted her folding safari chair that she used for painting in the desert. O’Keeffe referred to it as a “bunch of sticks.”

Ghost Ranch was the location of one of two homes O’Keeffe maintained in northern New Mexico. O’Keeffe had a summer house on twelve acres approximately twelve miles from Abiquiú at the edge of the 21,000-acre Ghost Ranch, then operated as a dude ranch. She also kept a larger home in Abiquiú with a well-watered garden that was more comfortable for winter lodging. She bought it from the Catholic Church as a ruin in 1945 and supervised its restoration. She made it her permanent home in 1949.

The chair is very similar in design to those of Danish architect and furniture designer Kaare Klint (1888-1954). Known as the father of modern Danish furniture design, Klint designed his first piece of furniture in 1914. He designed his safari chair in 1933 and was inspired by the English officer’s chair he had seen in a travel guide from Africa. It was one of the first do-it-yourself high design piece: it could be easily assembled and disassembled without tools, making it an ideal lightweight, portable armchair for people on the move.

Archive of Related Correspondence
This fascinating archive of signed correspondence from O’Keeffe to an emerging young artist offers artistic, emotional, and financial support, but it also reveals some of the limits of O’Keeffe’s support. After reading an article on O’Keeffe and her art, a bold young Marilynn Thuma (Mym Tuma), fresh out of the Stanford University graduate painting program, sent O’Keeffe a brief letter asking to visit her in New Mexico. Over the next eight years, they shared a rich correspondence and several visits, with O’Keefe supporting Thuma, but in 1971 the relationship soured and O’Keeffe resisted all of Thuma’s efforts at reconciliation.

The correspondence begins on May 14, 1964, and continues through June 19, 1973, including 12 autograph letters or notes signed and 6 typed letters signed by O’Keeffe (2 greeting cards), one autograph note unsigned, one typed letter unsigned, and one telegram, all with original transmittal envelopes, 3 vintage photographs of the landscapes surrounding O’Keeffe's Abiquiu ranch, an autograph label addressed to Tuma on the front of a trimmed envelope, and retained copies of approximately 27 of Thuma’s letters to O’Keeffe. The archive also includes two letters by O’Keeffe’s cook and housekeeper Jerrie Newsom to Thuma.

In 1964, Thuma, fresh out of the Stanford University graduate painting program, sent O’Keeffe a brief letter asking to visit her in New Mexico. Somewhat surprisingly, O’Keeffe responded quickly with a quick but warm note on an oversize Starlight Night notecard, “Yes/ G.OK/ Thanks for your page!” Thus begins a nearly ten-year relationship, with Tuma’s traveling to Ghost Ranch that summer for the first time. By 1968, Tuma was living in Jocotepec, Mexico, and again visited O’Keeffe, having now established a correspondence through which O’Keeffe is clearly engaged in assisting her younger protégée. The early letters, with the archival correspondence from Tuma, evince a relationship of a shared and evolving vision, and genuine care.

I want you to be working—free in your mind.”—July 1968

All that I can see as important is that you work”—October 1969

I will send you the two thousand that you need to get your next three paintings done.... If I send it may I consider your black creation mine?”—July 1968

If by any chance you would be able to sell your black object I will be glad to sell it as it gives me no pleasure.”—May 1973

 

Contents and Excerpts

O’Keeffe, Photocopy of ANS, original Addressed Envelope, postmarked May 14, 1964.

The note reads, “Yes / G.OK.” “Thanks for your page!

 

Thuma, TL to O’Keeffe, July 25, 1964, 1 p.

First, let me apologize for the long delay before thanking you for your hospitality during our visit in June. I waited – because the visit with you meant more as I reflected on it and a way to answer you and thank you only came slowly during that time.

 

Thuma, TL, to O’Keeffe, September 1966, 1 p. plus 16 pp. handmade notebook with photographs by Thuma.

Attached to this letter is a notebook of photographs about my recent work. These are paintings or more like small models of experiments in form.... I would like to see you and talk to you and I could bring the work to show you. Would you be in Abiquiu? And would you like to have a visitor for an afternoon in October?

 

Thuma, TL, to O’Keeffe, October 27, 1966. 1 p. to O’Keeffe,

I am planning a series of paintings and find that I will need the notebook of photographs which I sent you last month. The book contains the ideas I have been working to develop and further hope to realize in my work so you could understand I would be at a great loss without it.

 

O’Keeffe, Addressed Envelope, postmarked November 3, 1966.O’Keeffe likely returned the booklet in this envelope.

 

O’Keeffe, ALS to Thuma, July 3, 1968. 2 pp. plus envelope.

Thanking Thuma for visiting, and writes, “Do not sell your car or part with your dog. I will send you the two thousand that you need to get your next three paintings done but I must get it from someone who owes it to me.” O’Keeffe adds, “If I send it may I consider your black creation [Obsidian 1967] mine?

 

Thuma, ALS to O’Keeffe, July 15, 1968. 1 p. plus 2 photographs of Obsidian 1967.

 “You may have Obsidian for two thousand. I’m glad you want it. Thank you for the visit allowing me inside your life. I will miss eating with you.

 

O’Keeffe ALS to Thuma, July 20, 1968. 1 p. plus envelope

O’Keeffe acknowledges Thuma’s letter and reports that “it will take me a little time to get check to you but it will get there.” She promises to “write more later.” She signs the letter, “Hastily Sincerely / Georgia O’Keeffe.” In a postscript, O’Keeffe adds urgently, “I want you to be working—free in your mind.

 

O’Keeffe, ALS, July 27, 1968. 1 p. plus envelope

O’Keeffe sends her a check for $2,000 and writes, “Enclosed find check. Do not inconvenience yourself to get your Black Creation to me. I hope you are well and can be at work.” She signs the letter, “Sincerely / Georgia O’Keeffe

 

Thuma, ALS, to O’Keeffe, August 12, 1968. 1 p.

Thuma responds with “My greatest thanks – I have your check. And now I’m working again daily. There is some chance I can get Obsidian to you in a month or two and I appreciate your thoughtfulness in Waiting.

 

Thuma, ALS, to O’Keeffe, December 3, 1968. 1 p.

Thuma announces that “I am preparing to come North to bring Obsidian to you.... Looking forward to seeing you.

 

O’Keeffe, ALS, December 7, 1968. 1 p. plus envelope

O’Keeffe tells Thuma, I plan to go away Dec. 28 for two weeks or more so you had better come earlier and stay a few days if you wish.” She signs the letter, “Sincerely / Georgia O’Keeffe” and adds in a postscript, “I intend to go to Yucatan with friends.

 

Thuma, ALS to O’Keeffe, December 17, 1968.

Thuma writes, “I will wait to see you tentatively in May when the Season and time are more Amiable –and will write you well beforehand for a day that is Convenient. You can expect Obsidian for sure then.

 

O’Keeffe, ALS to Thuma, April 13, 1969, 1 p. plus envelope

O’Keeffe writes from the Stanhope hotel in New York, “Yesterday I was at Knoedlers for something of my own and told them of my interest in your work. As your work is difficult to move I think one of their men will come out to Abiquiu to see it if you get there with it. Have you done the other pieces that you intended to do?” She signed the letter, “Sincerely / Georgia O’Keeffe” and added in a postscript, “I plan to be in Abiquiu by next Saturday.”

 

O’Keeffe, ALS, June 7, 1969. 1 p. plus envelope

In a brief note signed “GOK,” O’Keeffe tells Thuma, “I am glad you are coming later. I have had four or five weeks of Shingles and am not much good. Come when you can but let me know a week ahead if you can.

 

O’Keeffe, ALS, June 18, 1969. 1 p. plus envelope

O’Keeffe writes, “I hope this reaches you in time. I think I told you I was having Shingles. I am really not well enough to see you now. I hope you can come in late July or August when I hope to be alright if I can be quiet now.

 

O’Keeffe, Typed Telegram, June 18, 1969. 1 p. plus envelope

The same day as writing the above, O’Keeffe telegraphed Thuma, “I NOT WELL ENOUGH TO HAVE YOU NOW COME IN JULY. / GEORGIA O KEEFE.

 

Thuma, ALS, July 15, 1969. 2 pp.

Thuma writes O’Keeffe apologetically, “I regret having set out for home as it happened—rushed and after unpleasant words. Please accept my apology for these mistakes and for the pressure forced on you which was not my intention in visiting. I left the Bud at the Ranch because you can do better with it than I can—if you are willing to sell it for me. My indecision in this needed the push you gave me.... The time we spent looking over the Drawings was a pleasure and a Great Honor. Thank you for these—and for allowing my work to be hung in your house.... I hope you stay in Good Spirit and that you will let me visit again.

 

Jerrie Newsom, ALS, to Marilyn Thuma, July 23, 1969. 3 pp. plus envelope

Newson writes to Thuma that O’Keeffe “really was mad at you too but not now.”

Jerrie Newson was Georgia O’Keeffe’s cook and housekeeper from 1966 to 1974, with some gaps.

 

Thuma, ALS, n.d., ca. October 1969. 3 pp.

Thuma writes in desperation, “I have no money and cannot plan to have any without your help. There is no chance I could make a show this year, but the pieces have been re-packaged in individual boxes, and I will have to pay the bill to get the work moving.... Now I cannot buy food. The burdens during the last year were eased only by your purchase of the black form.... My intention in June was to ask you to give me support to continue. But it was foremost my intention to show you beautiful work without words that would show the deep respect I have for you and the master and guide you have been to my own experience.

 

O’Keeffe, ALS, to O’Keeffe October 26, 1969. 1 p. plus envelope

O’Keeffe responds to Thuma, “A check will go to you as last year but it will take a week or ten days probably. I was very annoyed that you left your two creations here—after the act you put on. You should have had glass on your drawings and left a group with Jean to sell on commission—instead of asking her to buy the whole lot.” She signed the letter, “Sincerely / Georgia O’Keeffe” and added in a postscript, “I may write more another time, but it isnt important—All that I can see as important is that you work

 

O’Keeffe, ALS, November 17, 1969. 1 p. plus envelope

O’Keeffe apologizes for the delay in sending the check to Thuma: “This check came to me today because your address was lost. I am sorry it is so long but I mail it on to you.

 

Thuma, ALS, December 1, 1969. 2 pp.

Thuma informs O’Keeffe, “The check of $2000 arrived Thank you for your help. It will help me to move the work when I’m ready, and ease the consternation of being without supplies and vitamins.

 

Jerrie Newsom to Thuma, ALS, January 6, 1970, 1 p.

I left O’Keeffe Nov 12. She made me so mad that I just left, and I even got sick. Just because she has money she think you have to do what she say. So I hope I can get a job at Toas or maybe Ill go back. I just don’t know what to do.... Doris was at the ranch in Oct. and she took some pictures of the gold fish, and Miss O’Keeffe is asking for $10,000. I hope she can get it. I also hope she send you some money.

 

Thuma, TL, March 27, 1970. 1 p.

Thuma discusses her recent work and wishes O’Keeffe were closer, so they could visit. “I think that you are the most wonderful woman in the world. I am full of joy that we have made friends, and indebted to you for the help you have given me.

 

Thuma, ALS, September 4, 1970. 1 p.

Thuma discusses her art and sends photographs of her first eight completed forms. She concludes, “Mexico is good. My studio is like a sea bottom and there are more Ideas coming but I wonder about the future because I do not have enough money to plan for it. Will you please help me so I may keep on working a half year toward an exhibit?

 

Thuma, ALS, October 14, 1970. 2 pp.

Thuma mentions trying to reach O’Keeffe by phone and asks about the photographs she sent in September, “Do you think the Forms are any good?”  She writes to ask O’Keeffe to help her financially to keep working “because I am going to lose everything otherwise. The future hangs in your hands. I have enough money to live about one more week.” Thuma acknowledges that they have not spoken during the year, but pleads, “Miss O’keeffe, you are my only Hope to continue and I do not mean to put you in a losing position. Please tell me if you would be willing to make me a loan of one thousand and five hundred dollars to help me finish a few more Forms and pack the rest. I promise to return all the money you have loaned me as soon as I sell the first Form. I am almost starving and the Forms are growing better than ever. But there is very little time left  Please, will you help me?

A few days later, they spoke on the phone, and this archive includes Thuma’s notes on the conversation.

 

Thuma, TL, November 1, 1970. 1 p.

Thuma thanks O’Keeffe for the check for $100 but “I was unable to cash it as it does not have your signature.

 

Thuma, AL, n.d. (ca. November 1970). 1 p.

Thuma writes, “I want to tell you how much I appreciate the help you are giving me. Everything is going real well and it was a shot in the arm to hear your voice on the phone. I live in a world you have inspired in others and in me as well. I still have the house in the fields surrounded by hills and my dog. We live here and listen to the wind and the quiet t night and I have never really gotten over the feeling that I am camping out although we’ve been here now in Mexico four years. I like living alone, as you do.

 

O’Keeffe, ALS, November 2, 1970. 1 p. plus envelope, signed “G.O.K.

In this single sentence letter, O’Keeffe sends Thuma a check.

 

O’Keeffe, ALS, November 6, 1970. 1 p. plus envelope, signed “Sincerely hastily Georgia OKeeffe

In this letter, O’Keeffe apologizes for sending an unsigned check. She says, “If you have received and been able to cash this other check return this to me please. I will try to write you later.

 

Thuma, ALS, November 12, 1970. 1 p.

Thuma informs O’Keeffe that her check for $2,000 arrived safely and is deposited in the bank. She writes, “You have given me all I need to match my courage to go on.”

 

Thuma, ALS, February 16, 1971. 2 pp. plus 2 pp. enclosure

Thuma discusses her work and a trip that “My writer Fred and I” took to the Pacific Ocean near Manzanillo. She also enclosed a brief story that Fred Ryan had written a few days earlier.

 

O’Keeffe, TLS, May 8, 1971. 1 p. plus envelope

O’Keeffe asks Thuma, “What do you want me to do with this object that you left on my portal when you went away? I haven’t shown it to anyone. I could show it to Mrs. Seth and see if she could do anything with it – otherwise it is in its box in my garage. If I show it to Mrs. Seth, what value do you want on it?

 

Thuma, ALS, June 8, 1971. 1 p.

Thuma informs O’Keeffe that she will come for the form during the week of July 15 and encloses photographs of some of her recent work. Thuma asks, “May I come then? Is there any food you would like from Mexico?

 

O’Keeffe, TLS, June 29, 1971. 1 p. plus envelope

O’Keeffe thanks Thuma for the photographs, writing “I was very interested to see them.” She adds, “I will be here around the fifteenth of July as that seems to be when you wish to come.

 

Lynne Waugh, “Santa Fe Art,” clipping from The New Mexican (Santa Fe), August 8, 1971.

Jean Seth’s Canyon Road Gallery” introduced“the work of an exciting and capable artist to Santa Fe. The artist is Marilyn Thuma who has been living the past several years in Lake Chapanga, Mexico. The work at Seth’s consists of pastel drawings and several plastic molded forms which hang on the wall.

The article continues, “Miss Thuma has simplified to the point where the organic is completely visible. There is form and little else but shade and color. The impact is tremendous and the pastels resemble the work of Georgia O’Keeffe so acutely that it’s impossible to view them without that immediate response. Derivative is perhaps even an understatement to those who have studied Miss O’Keeffe’s work. The influence is marked and the approach, style, warmth, honesty and affection of the two women is as similar. Much of the work has already been sold. Its haunting quality is impressive and her work a real contribution to the art scene here.

 

Thuma, ALS, October 4, 1971, La Grange Park, Illinois. 1 p.

Thuma thanks O’Keeffe for having her at her house in July. “My illness,” she continues, “was an inconvenience for you and I am sorry. Thank you, because you were really very generous to give me four hundred dollars and to get me started with Jean Seth and Miss Bry who is interested in handling the forms. I am coming to Santa Fe next week and when I arrive will call you.”

 

O’Keeffe, TL, December 3, 1971, 1 p. plus envelope

O’Keeffe thanks Thuma for a plant and asks “whether that black form you brought me is a copy or whether it is the one I saw originally. It has always seemed dead and uninteresting to me, and since I found that you copy things, I think you have given me a copy. I would like to know. It may have been uninteresting to me because I was so aggravated with you. I have never been able to hang it on the wall with any interest.

This letter, together with the August newspaper report on Thuma’s work, suggests that Thuma’s imitation of O’Keeffe’s work annoyed the older artist and drove a wedge into their relationship.

 

Thuma, ALS, January 18, 1972, La Grange Park, Illinois. 1 p.

Thuma responds to O’Keeffe’s December letter by writing, “Several weeks ago I arrived in Chicago for medical attention And am just finding time to answer your december letter inquiring if the black Object you generously bought in 1968? from me was an Original—permit me to assure you that your black form Obsidian is not a duplicate and I shall not make another one.

 

Thuma, ALS, March 18, 1972, Sarasota, Florida. 1 p.

Thuma informs O’Keeffe that her return to Mexico has been delayed by a series of shell drawings and that she has “become intrigued with Florida enough to look for a studio here.” Although she missed the mountains of Mexico, she wrote, “I find something intimate in the sea.... The Gulf sand is white like a desert. You would love it for taking walks.” She closes with the wish, “I hope you will be with good companions this summer’s nights at the Ranch. If not let me know – if you need me.

 

Thuma, TLS, n.d. (ca. March 1972), on a Statement for a doctor visit and an emergency room visitin Espanola, New Mexico in July 1971. The total for the bill was $18.31. 1 p.

Thuma writes, “I received this bill from you (?) and I cannot pay it, having no money right now, but it was a bill which you told me you would take care of and which I told the doctors to charge to you, accordingly—and it was my understanding that you were giving me a gift undeserved.

 

O’Keeffe, TLS, April 7, 1972. 1 p. plus envelope, signed “Georgia O’Keeffe

O’Keeffe responds to Thuma regarding the doctor bill, “I think you had better pay the bill when you have some money.

 

Thuma, ALS, July 15, 1972, La Grange Park, Illinois. 2 pp., signed “Cordially, M. Thuma

Thuma writes, “Thank you for telling me you wanted me to pay Dr. cutler’s bill. Here is $1831 and I am sorry for the delay. Your letter went to Florida in April and was forwarded here last week. This adds a harsh note to our friendship which I feel you gave generously to me since 1966 and which we previously both enjoyed.” “I am not sure,” Thuma continues, “why you put Doris before me instead of yourself last August; as much as she can do for me she cannot equal the profound communication for which I sought you out. You were the persona and you were the example whom I idolized (but never copied) and you soon became my friend. You made sense out of being a woman and made me understand myself and all women better. The last night I put the flowers outside your living room window I watched you in your kitchen and felt that we would never repair the damage between us. That you wished to forget me, that I could no longer reach out to you. And ever since that time, I have only known longing and restlessness that time cannot repair. Please don’t send me any more bills. I know how much I owe you and it weighs heavily upon me. Aside from the money it is more than I can ever repay.

 

O’Keeffe, TLS, August 18, 1972. 1 p., signed “Georgia O’Keeffe

O’Keeffe’s terse response speaks volumes, “Thanks for check.

 

Thuma, copy of ALS, November 12, 1972. 2 pp.

Thuma writes to O’Keeffe, “Best wishes for a happy 85th year and at this time please accept this letter as a small part of my wish to give you more, to bring you something you liked and see the sparkle in your eyes.

 

Thuma, ALS in card with artwork on front, April 30, 1973. 4 pp.

Thuma writes to O’Keefe, “I sincerely regret having sent back the note you sent to me with the nightgown. I should have put your wishes first and will do so from now on. And assume you got my check for over a thousand, alright?” Thuma closes, “Because I did nothing from April 1972 upon leaving Mexico until now—for 1 year—this day ends the saddest year of my life.

Thuma’s annotations indicate that “I asked her if she wanted a cook from now until October. ‘I can do it.’

 

Thuma, TL, May 7, 1973, Delton, Michigan. 2 pp.

In this long and explanatory letter, Thuma informs O’Keeffe that she regrets many of her decisions over the past eighteen months: “I had no realistic idea of what was at stake 1 ½ years ago by turning you down and not cooking for you—had I not gotten ill and been able to evaluate that situation, the opportunity of being close to you as well as having your help and friendship—I would have stayed.” She explains that “I was too hot-headed and losing my long time lover didn’t help me see clearly.” She explains following him to Canada and ending their relationship, returning to Mexico, getting ill, and returning to Chicago “for repairs.” There, she took a job teaching but collapsed and went to rural Michigan in March to recover. She declares, “My whole life is that of an artist,” and she attempts to repair her relationship with O’Keeffe, ending “I sincerely ask that you let me know how you are and please consider my offer, I can cook as you like, accept my apology in all things in which I have been so stupid and offensive out of ignorance or egoism and recall our friendship when it was greatest in joy.

 

O’Keeffe, TLS, May 8, 1973. 1 p., signed “Georgia O’Keeffe

O’Keeffe’s response is both cordial and stern.

Thank you but I am pleased to say that I have a very satisfactory person to take care of my life. Jerrie is back, but thanks for offering. I assume that my endorsing the check would make you know that I received it. If by any chance you would be able to sell your black object I will be glad to sell it as it gives me no pleasure. It seems darker in color and larger than the one I thought I bought and does not have the quality that makes it seem alive to me. I hope your work is going well.

 

Thuma, ALS, June 19, 1973, Rockport, Massachusetts. 1 p.

Undaunted, Thuma sent O’Keeffe a final letter, “Please accept this Butterfly in remembrance of the summer I visited when we enjoyed each other’s company and toasted to my first show. It hasn’t come yet but 2 things make me happy. One is the reception everywhere is good toward my work. I’ve been to New York and sold 2 pastel drawings to the Milton Lowenthal collection on my own. And I’m getting back to work on Forms (I’ve done 40 new drwgs.) in Mexico this summer on my own savings but, I really miss you!

Capturing the arc of a friendship, this fantastic correspondence shows O’Keeffe as a mentor, much in the way that her correspondence with artist Yayoi Kusama (b. 1929) does. Kusama also wrote spontaneously to O’Keeffe in 1955, beginning a mentoring relationship with her as well, and providing a major stepping stone for Kusama in the art world. Covering a span of nearly ten years and with moments of tenderness, obvious care, as well as sparring, this correspondence offers an important glimpse into O’Keeffe's role as mentor to younger women artists in her later years.

Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986) was born in Wisconsin and after graduating high school in 1905 studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Students League in New York. In 1908, unable to fund further education, she worked for two years as a commercial illustrator and then taught in Virginia, Texas, and South Carolinabetween 1911 and 1918. While teaching art in West Texas, she experimented with abstraction through a series of charcoal drawings. Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946), a New York art dealer and photographer, first exhibited her work in 1917. She soon moved to New York at his invitation, which led to his divorce and their marriage in 1924. By the mid-1920s, O’Keeffe was already recognized as an important American artist for her paintings of New York skyscrapers and depictions of flowers. As an artist, she helped establish the American modernism movement and became known as the “Mother of American Modernism.” In the summer of 1929, she made her first trip to northern New Mexico and returned for most summers over the next two decades. After Stieglitz’s death, she lived permanently in New Mexico in Abiquiú, until the last years of her life when she lived in Santa Fe. In the 1950s, O’Keeffe began to travel internationally and painted mountains in Peru and Japan. In 1960, she began exploring a new subject, aerial views of clouds and sky. Because of failing vision, she painted her last unassisted work in 1972. She continued to create art with the help of assistants until near her death.After her death, the Georgia O’Keeffe Museumwas established in Santa Fe.

Marilynn Thuma / Mym Tuma (b. 1940) was born in Illinois and studied at Northwestern University, Stanford University, and New York University. She experimented with three-dimensional works in a studio she established in Mexico. She first met Georgia O’Keeffe in 1964, and the two artists discovered common interests. O’Keeffe served as a mentor, and they kept up a correspondence for nearly a decade. In 1974, Tuma toured New South Wales and Western Australia, painting and sketching, before returning to the United States and establishing a studio on the eastern end of Long Island, New York. Tuma has created abstract works on paper and emphasizes organic forms, including oceanic and coastal forms. She also specialized in sculptured paintings.

Provenance: Georgia O’Keeffe; to artist Marilyn Thuma (a.k.a. Mym Tuma).


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