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The artist and executive: A rare fit
By MARIA SAPORTA
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 30 July 1997, page E-3
A special friendship, unusual
among artists and business executives, blossomed between local folk artist
Mattie Lou O’Kelley and T. Marshall Hahn, the retired chairman and CEO of
Georgia-Pacific Corp.
Hahn reflected Tuesday on his decade-long friendship with O’Kelley, who
died from apparent heart failure over the weekend.
"Certainly our bond was my love for her work," Hahn said. "She got a kick
out of that. She still would be my favorite artist."
In her last years, Hahn was not only her patron but one of her few
friends, visiting her when he was in Atlanta from his Florida home or
Virginia farm.
"Every time I went to see her, I would take her a blooming potted plant.
She also liked the gossip sheets ---the Globe, the Star, the Examiner. So
I'd bring her those, too," Hahn said. "She always was very grateful. I saw
a side of her that not many people saw. She could be courtly, gracious and
nice."
Many people who knew her would call her "reclusive" and "irascible," Hahn
said. But he also understood that she was lonely. He often would take her
out to her favorite restaurant ---the Picadilly Cafeteria in Decatur.
"I'm standing in front of a painting she did of the farm in 1990," Hahn
said in a telephone interview from his Florida home. "There's a donkey up
there, Hershel, that guards the sheep, and he's in the center of the
picture. When she was painting the picture, she said, `I thought I w would
put a jackass in the picture. I didn't know whether to put you or Hershel
in it.' "
O’Kelley never painted a portrait of Hahn. But she did a self-portrait she
sold to him called "Mattie in the Morning Glories." Around her neck is a
cameo Hahn had brought her from Italy.
Hahn became aware of O’Kelley shortly after he moved Georgia-Pacific's
headquarters to Atlanta in the early 1980s. Already a folk art collector,
Hahn saw some of her work at the High Museum of Art. He tried to find her
work through local art dealers, but she had cut off all relationships.
After several attempts, he finally got her phone number.
"She was very private. She had been stung a couple of times by people who
tried to take advantage of her," Hahn said. When he finally met her,
O’Kelley was in the middle of doing a painting for a book, "Moving to
Town." He asked if she had any paintings for sale. She said, "No." She
only had the one she was working on and two others she was preparing for
the book.
"I will only sell them to someone who will back the book," she said. "So I
backed the book," Hahn said. He agreed to buy all 24 paintings for the
book, and pay her each time she completed three paintings.
"At first she insisted I bring her a certified check," Hahn said. "After a
couple of times, she realized I wasn't going to cheat her."'
By the time she had finished the 24 paintings in 1989, Hahn and O’Kelley
had become fast friends.
"I bought most of what she produced from that period of time," Hahn said.
"Most every painting, she would say, `You want to buy it?' And I said,
`Sure.' The price kept going up. She'd tell me a price, and I'd say,
`Fine.' "
Hahn wouldn't say how much he had invested in O’Kelley’s paintings, other
than "several hundred thousand dollars." He helped make sure all her bills
were paid and that the money he paid her was well-invested. When he met
her, she was "getting by," but with Hahn's patronage, she ended up rather
well off.
Their friendship led to other adventures. O’Kelley had always wanted to
visit England and return on the Queen Elizabeth II ocean liner. So Hahn
sent her and his oldest daughter to England for a week or two. "They
nearly killed each other," Hahn recalled with a laugh. O’Kelley was
disappointed in the voyage on the QEII, and she came back and did a
painting "like it should have been." Hahn gave the artwork to his
daughter.
Hahn was able to observe O’Kelley at work. When he took her to his
Virginia farm, she sat out in the yard at a card table, painting flat
without an easel and wearing a sunbonnet.
"She made a pencil sketch first on a piece of paper. Then she made a
pencil drawing on a canvas, and then she made a painting from that," Hahn
said. "It made the art more meaningful to me. Of course, I've gotten to
know other self-taught artists in some of the same way."
Hahn has donated much of his extensive folk art collection to the High
Museum as well as to the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center in
Williamsburg, Va., and the Museum of American Folk Art in New York. But of
the 50 pieces he collected, he has kept about 30 of them. "My two
daughters love them and want them," he said.
O’Kelley discovered her talent when she was 54, and she was able to
complete the 24 paintings for her "Moving to Town" book in about 30
months. But in her last years, her pace slowed.
"She probably painted on that last painting for more than six months. It
was very simple and showed a regression back to her earlier work. It was
almost childlike," Hahn said. "I kept encouraging her to paint, thinking
that would be good for her, but that last painting she struggled with."
Hahn remembered their conversation about the painting. "I want to paint
you a painting as a gift while I can," she said.
"When she finished it, I told her I was going to pay her. But she said,
`This is a gift. You have done so much for me.' She could be a very
stubborn lady," Hahn said. "I will miss her."
Page last updated
11/21/2011 |
