Zelda Fitzgerald's life was one of tragedy and defeat. Yet these morbid qualities can often make for inspiring art. Long overshadowed by her more famous and certainly more read husband, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Fitzgerald nevertheless has a remarkable body of work to her name. Her career as an artist and writer in her own right is the subject of Zelda Fitzgerald: Choreography in Color, a new exhibit at the Johns Hopkins's Evergreen Museum. The exhibit is the result of junior Laura Maria Somenzi's Woodrow Wilson Research project.
The Fitzgeralds lived for a time in Baltimore and the surrounding environs — occupying Hopkins's own Wolman dorm when it was still an apartment building in the 1930s. It seems fitting then, that an exhibit paying homage to Fitzgerald should be located in the city that was once her home.
The exhibit is small, located on the second floor of Baltimore's Gilded Age mansion turned museum. It contains photographs, a small television playing a black and white documentary about the Fitzgeralds and examples of Fitzgerald's writing. There is an edition of her only finished novel, Save Me the Waltz, whose publication angered her husband. The captions within the exhibit reveal that although F. Scott Fitzgerald modeled most of his female characters after his wife and used their relationship troubles as material for his novels, he was displeased at the semi-autobiographical nature of his wife's work.
It seems that the revered male writer was uninterested in supporting Fitzgerald's own artistic career. Yet it is worth noting that F. Scott Fitzgerald placed excerpts from his wife's diaries and her verbatim dialogue into his writing. Perhaps he preferred to keep her in the role of his dissatisfied muse instead of allowing her to pursue a voice of her own.
Most prominently on display at the exhibit are Fitzgerald's paintings, most of flowers and female dancers. The plaques beside the flower artwork discuss how Georgia O'Keefe's distinctly feminine style inspired Fitzgerald. The paintings of dancers are almost Picasso-like in their unsettling abstraction. Fitzgerald paints the women as muscular figures often without faces or clothing. Their body parts are out of proportion and deformed, providing a disturbing yet somehow empowering depiction of the female form.
Unfortunately, there is probably a reason Fitzgerald is not known primarily for her artwork. The paintings are interesting, but not quite life changing. They are most relevant when viewed from a historical, psychological and feminist perspective. The exhibit shows a woman's struggle to express herself while being overshadowed by a much more prominent man. The captions beside the displays also reveal Fitzgerald's mental instability. With this knowledge, the viewer can see how the artwork likely reflects her inner turmoil. In fact, Fitzgerald spent time in the Hopkins Hospital and the Sheppard-Pratt Sanitarium outside Baltimore.
Mentioned repeatedly in the plaques and shown in the photographs and documentary is the Fitzgeralds' daughter Scottie. One can imagine what a difficult childhood the girl must have had, given her father's alcoholism and the institutionalization of her mother. She seems to be another tragic figure caught up in the Fitzgerald story and it might have been interesting for the exhibit to include information about whatever became of little Scottie.
The exhibit is worth a look and its location in a beautiful old mansion is undoubtedly impressive. Be prepared though, because the Evergreen Museum itself is a bit difficult to maneuver. Visitors must be at all times escorted by a guide. But the museum staff is accommodating and friendly and they allowed this reviewer to enter the exhibit without a proper tour (albeit still under supervision). Also, Hopkins students and staff get in the museum for free, so why not?
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