The pioneering American modernist Georgia O’Keeffe created new ways of visually interpreting the world, leaving a legacy for future generations of artists. Organized by the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, “The Beyond: Georgia O’Keeffe and Contemporary Art” presents a significant group of O’Keeffe’s paintings and sculptures alongside the work of 20 emerging artists, selected for their individual approaches to some of O’Keeffe’s themes, including the interplay between realism and abstraction.
Pentagram’s catalogue for the exhibition juxtaposes work by O’Keeffe and her artistic heirs, allowing readers to make their own comparisons. The design employs the graphic motif of a straight, centered line, suggesting a leap or shift from one perspective to another––from the representative to the abstract, from here to the intangible “beyond.” The typography mixes Marr Sans, a eccentric and sharp grotesque (designed by Commercial Type), with Grifo, an expressive, neoclassic serif (by R-Typography).
Each section of the book is introduced with a different color pairing, and the cover matches a detail from a painting by Sharona Eliassaf on the front with a work by O’Keeffe on the back. The cover’s tactile, soft-touch finish, with debossed foil type, nods to the sensual aspects of O’Keeffe’s work.
After opening at Crystal Bridges, the exhibition has traveled to the North Carolina Museum of Art, where it’s on view through January 10, 2019, and will continue to tour other institutions.
