Foursome

Next month one of our favorite Santa Cruz writers—Carolyn Burke—will publish her latest work, Foursome: Alfred Stieglitz, Georgio O'Keeffe, Paul Strand, Rebecca Salsbury. In her words, "Foursome is a group portrait, a study of four American modernists who chose not to go to Europe, as so many did in the 1920's, but to devote their energies to a shared vision of modern art."

And here's the more elaborate description from Penguin Random House: "A captivating, spirited account of the intense relationship among four artists whose strong personalities, passionate feelings, and aesthetic ideals drew them together, pulled them apart, and profoundly influenced the very shape of twentieth-century art.New York, 1921: Alfred Stieglitz, the most influential figure in early twentieth-century photography, celebrates the success of his latest exhibition–the centerpiece, a series of nude portraits of the young Georgia O’Keeffe, soon to be his wife. It is a turning point for O’Keeffe, poised to make her entrance into the art scene–and for Rebecca Salsbury, the fiancée of Stieglitz’s protégé at the time, Paul Strand. When Strand introduces Salsbury to Stieglitz and O’Keeffe, it is the first moment of a bond between the two couples that will last more than a decade and reverberate throughout their lives. In the years that followed, O’Keeffe and Stieglitz became the preeminent couple in American modern art, spurring each other’s creativity. Observing their relationship led Salsbury to encourage new artistic possibilities for Strand and to rethink her own potential as an artist. In fact, it was Salsbury, the least known of the four, who was the main thread that wove the two couples’ lives together. Carolyn Burke mines the correspondence of the foursome to reveal how each inspired, provoked, and unsettled the others while pursuing seminal modes of artistic innovation. The result is a surprising, illuminating portrait of four extraordinary figures."

Her upcoming promotional event schedule:

3.7 at City Lights Books in San Francisco, 7pm

3.13 at Bookshop Santa Cruz, 7pm

4.10 at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, 6pm

For more information, head over to www.carolynburke.com