The Groove Issue 21 - A Lover's Influence
Welcome to the 21st issue of The Groove.
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A LOVER’S INFLUENCE
What’s the connection between romantic love, creativity and business? When someone is in love, there is a stimulation that fires up the brain’s “reward system”. The lover expresses increased energy and ecstasy when the love affair is going well and mood swings into despair during times of adversity. These “showers” of dopamine and oxytocin are the most fertile terrain for creativity.
What I have found even more appealing is not when one of the lovers has done their best work because they were in a hot relationship or went through a gut-wrenching breakup, but when the two people involved have influenced each other’s minds and hearts during a time of intense creative output, resulting in memorable, poignant, iconic works.
Also, it is worth examining the stories of lovers who contributed to the commercial success of each other because of the creative drive stemming from the effect they had on one another. One thing fuels the other and I’ve always said that excellent creative work deserves to be monetarily rewarded – and what a better win for a couple than when the benefits go both ways.
Here are some of my faves:
Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz
Alfred Stieglitz attached this photograph to a letter for Georgia O'Keeffe, dated July 10, 1929. Below the photograph he wrote, "I have destroyed 300 prints to-day. And much more literature. I haven't the heart to destroy this..."
Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz met in 1916 when he was 52 years old, already a renowned photographer and gallery owner doing well in New York, while she was a 28-year-old unknown artist from Wisconsin.
He became infatuated with her and her charcoals and in 1918 invited her to pose for a series of nude pictures that are still talked about in photography circles today. He started adding O’Keeffe’s work to his gallery exhibitions, eventually leaving his first wife and marrying Georgia in 1924.
Stieglitz kickstarted her career into fame and began having an increased influence in her work, suggesting that she read Freud and explore sexual shapes like flowers and other suggestive forms from nature in her paintings. Meanwhile, she was boosting the sales in his gallery and inspiring a new phase in his career as a photographer. Both had enormous commercial success with their work throughout their lives, thanks to the impact that each had on the other.
Later, when O’Keeffe had moved to New Mexico on her own, escaping her difficulties with Stieglitz and the trappings of a hectic city life, the couple eventually adapted to the new situation and remained together until his death in 1946.
Their entire relationship is recorded in over 25,000 letters that the couple shared between 1915 and 1946. Sometimes they wrote each other two and three letters a day, sometimes the letters were 40 pages long. That’s love.
Carlo Ponti and Sophia Loren
Carlo Ponti and Sophia Loren in Europe. Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt/The LIFE Picture Collection, July 1961.
During their 56 years together until his death, Carlo Ponti and Sophia Loren married twice (because the first one was annulled) and made 37 movies together, he as the producer, she as an actress. Ponti was a mentor and a protector to Loren. In the beginning, their fling was kept under wraps as Ponti had been married before and Italy didn’t recognize the legality of any divorce.
In 1956, Ponti, ever the hustler for his lover, connected Sophia so well in Hollywood that he got her the leading role in The Pride and the Passion, in which she would co-star with Frank Sinatra and Cary Grant. Grant, who was one of the most coveted actors of the time, fell in love with her too, but Sophia couldn’t betray Ponti no matter how charming and physically stunning Grant was.
Ponti felt invigorated by his relationship with Sophia and pursued more films that would expand her career. She was in love with his energy, experience, and “Italian way”, which always felt like home to her. He fought to take her out of the stereotypical roles because she was just too strong a presence to be partnered with most American leading actors.
He had the drive and the devotion to turn her into an international superstar and he did. In December of 1960, he produced Two Women, and partnered his wife with the French man-of-the-hour, Jean Paul Belmondo. For this film, Sophia won the Oscar as Best Actress – a triumph that they shared as if it belonged to both, because it did.
Robert Mapplethorpe and Patti Smith
Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe in New York, 1970. Photo by Norman Seeff.
If in the ‘60s and ‘70s, the filthy, drug-infested New York City had to choose one creative hothouse, that would have to be the Chelsea Hotel. There, Robert Mapplethorpe, the revolutionary photographer, and Patti Smith, the rock star, poet, and artist, lived as lovers, best friends, and collaborators.
She often modeled for Mapplethorpe. He was the photographer for Smith’s famous album Horses (1975), which gave her great projection. The bohemian image that Mapplethorpe fashioned for her has since defined her career. She got him confidence and a support system, while he developed his idiosyncratic style.
Although Smith moved to Detroit in 1979, where she married MC5 guitarist Fred “Sonic” Smith, she remained close to Mapplethorpe. He died in 1989 from complications due to AIDS. On his deathbed, he made Smith promise she would write a book about their lives together. This led to Patti Smith’s incredible memoir Just Kids, which became a New York Times Bestseller and the recipient of many prizes including the National Book Award.
Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg
Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, Pearl Street, New York, 1954; photograph by Rachel Rosenthal
Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg were two young artists trying to figure out their visual vocabulary in the 1950s when the United States embraced Abstract Expressionism. But this movement didn’t feel quite right for either of them.
Rauschenberg was older than Johns and often a mentor for the younger artist, but one day they fell in love. However, being gay wasn’t accepted in American society and they went on to have a secret romance.
The men spent significant time together in a small New York City studio and this period brought about Rauschenberg’s Combines series (1954) and Johns’ Flag (1954), which utilized ‘lowbrow’ art influences and everyday objects. This marked the beginning of the end of Abstract Expressionism and the fresh start of the pop art era.
Rauschenberg was also the one who introduced Johns to art dealer Leo Castelli, immediately jumpstarting his career and taking it to new levels. Their relationship lasted for six years where both saw immense success and significant creative breakthroughs that are written in history.
Examples like the four above abound. Not all of them make history but every love story has the capacity to generate innovative ideas and quantum leaps in business and art. The only prerequisite is that one has to be open to be guided and persuaded and to be willing to be generous enough to do the same.
Happy Valentine’s! Thank you for reading this far. Looking forward to hearing from you anytime.