Juan Hamilton, who enriched the last years of painter Georgia O'Keefe as her much younger caretaker, confidant and protégé, but was the subject of sensational accusations as the sole beneficiary of her will, died on February 20th at his home in Santa Fe, NM.
His death was confirmed by his wife, Anna Marie Hamilton, due to complications of a subdural hematoma that he suffered several years ago.
In the last decade of O'Keefe's life, no one approached her as much as Hamilton. When they met, he was 27 years old and had a well-carved mustache from a tied, rootless, recently divorced potter. She is a petite, increasingly blind 85 years old, and her bohemian past, pictorial originality and uncompromising dedication to her work have made her an embodiment of the spirit of contemporary art.
A childless widow, O'Keefe was not close to his Wisconsin-born relative. Many of her visitors were strangers. A young supply pan that traveled from afar to bask in her aura in search of her blessings.
Mr. Hamilton was one such pilgrim. Their relationship will ultimately decide what will happen to O'Keefe's estate, which is estimated to be worth around $90 million, and who will oversee her inheritance. It also marked Mr. Hamilton for the rest of his life, leaving him with memories that followed his deathbed, leaving him with small fortunes, a career up and down as an artist.
It all began on one morning on Labor Day weekend in 1973. Mr. Hamilton was a handyman at Ghost Ranch, a vast property owned primarily by the Presbyterian Church.
He knocked on her back door and when she answered, he asked if she was doing a strange job with him.
O'Keefe said she wasn't and he began to leave.
“Wait a second,” she called him. “Can you help me pack a wooden frame for transportation?”
Hamilton later said he traveled to a ghost lunch inspired by the “dream fantasy” that he came to him while he was driving.
At first he did some chores for her. Eventually, he took on more personal tasks, including cutting food over food and processing her communications. Sometimes he stayed with her for a little while in the evening, listening to Beethoven's piano sonata. They began their trip together – Antigua, Guatemala, Morocco, New York.
He also took on the role of editor and curator, helping to produce books and exhibitions on O'Keefe and her late husband, photographer and gallerist Alfred Stieglitz.
With the encouragement of Hamilton, O'Keefe featured watercolors for the first time in decades and appeared in a 1977 documentary. The New York Times said, “This is the first time an artist has agreed to a film portrait of herself and her work.”
Inspiration went both ways. Working in both clay and bronze, Hamilton carved abstract shapes beyond ceramics, and managed to control the way lacquer and polish reflected light.
In a 1977 interview with Artnews, O'Keefe said of Hamilton, “I think he has something like pure crystal.”
The Times included two headings in a 1979 article: “The Alend Woman – Younger Man Relationshion: A Taboo Fades.” Friends said their connections were not sexual and very affectionate.
“She's an older woman, so she's biased against us,” Hamilton told People Magazine. “I'm young and somewhat handsome.”
Galleryists hoping to reach Mr. O'Keefe had to go through him, and his sculptures began to be widely displayed. Times art critics Grace Greck and John Russell both praised his abstract bronze.
In 1978 he held a show in New York, with Andy Warhol and Joni Mitchell present. O'Keefe's recently fired agent, Doris Brie, also served in a lawsuit accusing Hamilton of “malicious intervention” in Brie's relationship with O'Keefe.
The lawsuit involving O'Keefe and Brie and the other two have been resolved, but the case was a sign of what's going forward. “There were a lot of jealousy, lots of 'Let's Get Fuan',” an unnamed friend told The Washington Post.
In 1980, Hamilton married Anna Marie (Proholoff) Erskine, another Ghost Ranch pilgrim, and had two sons, Albert and Brandon. When O'Keefe's health deteriorated, the family moved with her in Santa Fe, near the hospital. She passed away in 1986 at the age of 98.
By then, Hamilton had a power of attorney for her matter. However, after her death something new was born. In 1984, Codicil to Mr. O'Keefe's Will transported “an under $40 million in O'Keefe's artwork” and “an estate worth about $50 million from the charity” to Mr. Hamilton, a lawyer at Sebring in June.
Sebring was one of several relatives who accused Hamilton of exerting “excessive influence.” A series of bitter attacks followed. In the deposit, O'Keefe's last living brother, Katherine Krenato, is called Mr. Hamilton. In Roxana Robinson's biographer, Georgia O'Keefe: Life (1989), relatives were quoted as calling him a “gigolo,” and the author argued that the relationship was “confusing” by “greed.”
Nevertheless, the Washington Post wrote in 1987 that “it is undoubtedly Hamilton, not his relatives, who cared for O'Keefe in his last few years.
In a 1990 takedown of the Journal of Art Biography, critic Barbara Rose wrote: “Juan Hamilton was not Georgia O'Keefe's lover.
He was “the only person she had total trust,” Rose continued. Because he was willing to do what he did for her husband, Mr. Stieglitz.
Eventually, Hamilton reached an agreement with his relatives, reverted to previous versions of his will, and gave his family millions of dollars. He received more than 20 artwork and much of her wealth. The foundation was established to handle many of the real estate issues.
In her essay, Rose wrote that without Hamilton's supervision, O'Keefe's painting would have been transformed into a calendar. Her picture is cheaper. Her life has been transformed into a melodrama. ”
John Bruce Hamilton was born in Dallas on December 22, 1945. He was known as Juan because he spent most of his childhood in Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela. His father was also the principal of the school. His mother took Juan to visit a local potter, and he began playing with the clay.
During his high school days, his family lived in Manhattan's Upper West Side and Glenlock, New Jersey. He received his Bachelor of Art from Hastings College in Nebraska and continued his studies in sculpture at Claremont Graduate University in California.
After O'Keefe's will settled, Hamilton purchased a large estate in Honolulu and a farm in Maui. His sons went to private school. However, he lost his position in the art world.
“The whole story with Juan has been very sensational and has pushed people not to take seriously,” his wife Hamilton said in an interview. “I think he's become more and more disillusioned.”
He continued to sell his work, but he became more and more focused on landscaping on his farm.
In addition to his wife and son, he is survived by sisters Elizabeth Hildreth and two grandchildren. His first marriage to Victoria Weber ended with a divorce.
Contrary to his claim that he is a Fortune Hunter, Hamilton has been obsessed with the art and ephemera he inherited from O'Keefe. In 2020, when he determined it was financially necessary, he sold over 100 items from his collection through Sotheby's, selling $17.2 million, Artnews reported.
Still, he refused to let go of the paintings she had made that influenced his sculpture. Also some of the Constant Brancusi prints and illustrations of Mr. O'Keefe gave him.
By the end of his life, Mr. Hamilton had a hard time walking. From the bed, he often had the same demands, his wife said: she would bring him and an old artwork that he and O'Keefe loved decades ago.
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