Near the paintings by Georgia O’Keefe in the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, I found “Chinatown, 1912” by Stuart Davis.
In the painting, a slim woman dressed in a long, black dress with a high collar and sleeves that cover her arms is walking down a street filled with tall buildings. Davis “depicts the seamy underpinnings of a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan,” the information next to the painting explains. “According to the conventions of the time, a woman walking alone was a prostitute.”
I paused in front of the painting and counted my blessings. I am thankful that the conventions of the times have changed.
–Joy