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Painting done by MO in the style of Georgia O'Keeffe.

 

Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986)

In the Beginning

Born on the Wisconsin prairie on November 15th, 1887, Georgia Totto O'Keeffe spent her early childhood with six brothers and sisters in a quiet farm community outside Madison, Wisconsin. Encouraged by her mother to develop confidence and intellectual curiosity, young Georgia and her sisters received painting lessons from a local artist. Soon growing tired of making watercolor copies of book illustrations, Georgia began to experiment on her own in an effort to capture subtle hues of sunlight and shadow with paint, preferring the shapes and colors that existed in nature to copies in books.

Influential People- Mentors of Note

As her artistic talent was recognized, O'Keeffe was sent to schools where her gift could be developed. Elizabeth May Willis, art teacher and principal at Chatam Episcopal Institute, encouraged and supported O'Keeffe's early artistic efforts. William Merritt Chase of New York's Art students League impressed O'Keeffe with his personality, teaching methods and inspiring ideas. New York proved to be a place where O'Keeffe encountered people with ideas that profoundly influenced her work. Alon Bement and Arthur Wesley Dow helped her move from traditional representational art to experimenting with abstract, nonrepresentational shapes and patterns. To explain her interest in the abstract and waning interest in representational art O'Keeffe said, "If one could only reproduce nature and always with less beauty than the original, why paint at all?" Bement later introduced her to the theories of abstract artist Wassily Kandinsky, whose ideas about color and the connection between art and music affected O'Keeffe's emerging style. Also in New York, O'Keeffe became acquainted with 291 gallery owner and photographer Alfred Stieglitz, who became her mentor, tireless promoter, companion, lover, and husband. It was Stieglitz's devotion, encouragement and influence that allowed O'Keeffe to make her mark in a field previously believed to be the exclusive domain of men and to help define modern American art. (Berry, p. 105)

Influential Places Dictate Subject Matter

Places as well as people impacted Georgia O'Keeffe's art. Her early life on the Wisconsin prairie fostered an interest in and appreciation of nature with its endless variety of color, light, and shape. Her years in New York led to works with skyscrapers as the central theme. Trips to Hawaii and the Orient resulted in gigantic tropical and oriental flowers. But it was New Mexico and her beloved Ghost Ranch that inspired perhaps her best and most famous work: the desolate beauty of the desert landscape and sky, the desert flower and the bleached bones of animals, particularly skulls-often objects not generally regarded as things of beauty.

Characteristic Elements of O'Keeffe's Work

Georgia O'Keeffe's love of the physical objects of nature is the constant that helps make her work recognizable. Yet within this realm, O'Keeffe's art has ranged from representative to abstract to a style Goodrich describes as a selective realism (p. 15). As Goodrich puts it

Sometimes the motif is pictured realistically but in unreal, imaginative contexts: magnified far beyond its actual dimensions, removed from its normal setting, shown in strange combinations. Sometimes the motif serves as a starting point for plastic invention, and is so altered as to become semi-abstract. And sometimes her work is purely abstract, with little or no relation to specific actualities. (p.15)
O'Keeffe's work is marked by clarity of style, with color, line and form that speaks to the senses (Robinson, p.59). Her work also shows that she is concerned not with the mere visual appearance of things but with their essential life, their being, their identity (Goodrich, p. 15). The artist's subjects are never totally realistic, but generally express her personal feeling: "I know I cannot paint a flower, but maybe in terms of paint color I can convey…my experience of the flower or the experience that makes the flower of significance to me at that particular time." During her lifetime, Georgia O'Keeffe's talent brought her fame and fortune as well as a chance to shape the course of modern American art. Even after her death in 1986, her work remains not only popular and exciting, but also greatly influential.

O'Keeffe's Notable Works

Georgia O'Keeffe's most important works include the following:

  • Sky Above Clouds IV, O'Keeffe's largest painting (1965)
  • An Orchid, pastel on paper-covered board (1941)
  • Horse's Skull With White Rose, a representative example of O'Keeffe's New Mexico works (1931)
  • Two Calla Lilies on Pink, which shows two gigantic lilies on a pink background (1928)
  • Radiator Building-Night, New York, an easily recognizable piece from O'Keeffe's skyscraper-painting days (1927)
  • Music-Pink and Blue, II, the second painting in a series of music-inspired pieces (1919)
  • Red Poppy, another huge flower motif (1927)
  • Ranchos Church, a depiction of a New Mexico church near the Ghost Ranch (1929)

O'Keeffe Works in Chicago

Because of the staging of O'Keeffe's first fully retrospective exhibition at Chicago's Art Institute, the museum today houses many of O'Keeffe's most recognizable works, including

  • Sky Above Clouds IV, 1965, oil on canvas
  • Cow's Skull with Calico Roses, 1931, oil on canvas
  • Black Cross, New Mexico, 1929, oil on canvas
  • The Shelton with Sunspots, 1929, oil on canvas
  • The Black Place, 1943, oil on canvas

O'Keeffe in Her Own Words

These quotes help to define Georgia O'Keeffe as an artist and as a person:

  • "I have never been bored." (Berry, p. 21)

  • "I am trying with all my skill to do a painting that is all of women, as well as all of me." (Berry, p. 69)

  • "When I think of death, I only regret that I will not be able to see this beautiful country anymore...unless the Indians are right and my spirit will walk here after I am gone." (Shannon)

  • "...I often painted fragments of things because it seemed to make my statements as well or better than the whole could...I had to create an equivalent for what I felt I was looking at...not copy it." (the faraway)

  • "It [the Palo Duro Canyon] was all so far away-there was quiet and an untouched feel of the country-and I could work as I pleased." (Lovingly, Georgia)

  • "When I got to New Mexico, that was mine." (Ghost Ranch)

  • "I know now that most people are so closely concerned with themselves that they are not aware of their own individuality, I can see myself, and it has helped me to say what I want to say...in paint." (O'Keeffe and Stieglitz)

  • "...one rarely takes the time to see a flower. I have painted what each flower is to me and I have painted it big enough so that others would see what I see." (kidsartscrafts)

  • "Nobody sees a flower, really, it is so small. We haven't time-and to see takes time like to have a friend takes time." (artcyclopedia)

  • "...I'll paint what I see-what the flower is to me, but I'll paint it big and they will be surprised into taking time to look at it-I will make even busy New Yorkers take time to see what I see of flowers." (artcyclopedia)

  • "Most people in the city rush around so, they have no time to look at a flower. I want them to see it whether they want to or not." (The early years)

  • "Mr. Stieglitz: If you remember for a week why you liked my charcoals that Anita Pollitzer showed you and what they said to you-I would like to know if you want to tell me. I don't mind asking-you can do as you please about answering. Of course I know you will do as you please. I make them just to express myself-things I feel and want to say-haven't words for. You probably know without my saying that I ask because I wonder if I got over to anyone what I wanted to say." -O'Keeffe's first letter to Stieglitz (Robinson, p. 131)

  • "I am loving the plains more than ever it seems-and the SKY-Anita you have never seen the SKY-It is wonderful..." -O'Keeffe to Pollitzer (Lovingly, Georgia)

  • "I decided I was a very stupid fool not to at least paint what I wanted to and say that I wanted to when I painted as that seemed to be the only thing I could do that didn't concern anybody but myself-that was nobody's business but my own." (Gilbert)

Bibliography

  • Berry, Michael. Georgia O'Keeffe. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1988. (Introduces O'Keeffe and explains how she contributed to the shaping of the course of American history.)
  • Cowart, Jack, and Juan Hamilton. Georgia O'Keeffe: Art and Letters. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1987. (This is a great collection of more than 120 letters and also includes a complete chronology and essays written by the authors.)
  • Dake, Patricia. "Georgia O'Keeffe- an Artist to Inspire Us All." About: Arts/Crafts for Kids 2000. 12 Oct. 2000 http://kidsartscrafts.about.com/kids/kidsartscrafts/library/weekly/aa022500a.htm (This is a very clear, to the point biography of O'Keeffe.)
  • Elderidge, Charles C. Georgia O'Keeffe: American and Modern. New Haven: Yale UP, 1993. (This is a catalogue from a recent international retrospective exhibit that featured O'Keeffe's abstractions- includes a short biography and photos of O'Keeffe.)
  • "Georgia O'Keeffe- the young artist" Georgia O'Keeffe 1998. 12 Oct. 2000 http://www.ellensplace.net/okeeffe2.html (Highlights O'Keeffe's early life, including inspirations and education.)
  • "Georgia O'Keeffe." Georgia O'Keeffe, The early years 1999. 14 Sept. 2000 http://www.geocities.com/moondarlin/artokeeffe.html (This is a very good overview of O'Keeffe's early life)
  • "Georgia O'Keeffe." Ghost Ranch 1999. 14 Sept. 2000 http://www.newmexico-ghostranch.org.okeeffe.html (Explains how the Ghost Ranch influenced O'Keeffe's work.)
  • "Georgia O'Keeffe" Impressionist art prints.com 1999. 14 Sept. 2000 http://www.impressionistartprints.com/okeefe_biography.htm (A thorough introduction with strong historical awareness.)

  • "O'Keeffe & Stieglitz" Georgia O'Keeffe 1998. 12 Oct. 2000 http://www.ellensplace.net/okeeffe3.html (This page focuses on O'Keeffe's relationship with Alfred Stieglitz.)

  • "O'Keeffe- the faraway" Georgia O'Keeffe 1998. 12 Oct. 2000 http://www.ellensplace.net/okeeffe4.html (Focuses on O'Keeffe's influence from New Mexico and the Southwestern U.S.)

  • "O'Keeffe, Georgia." Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2000. 11 Sept. 2000 http://encarta.msn.com/ (This is a concise biographical sketch of O'Keeffe's life.)
  • Gilbert, Rita. "Georgia O'Keeffe: Biography." Sharon's Art Gallery 1997. 11 Sept. 2000 http://www.fortunecity.com/skyscraper/centre/615/art/Okeeffe.html (A brief overview of O'Keeffe's adult life and relationship with Alfred Stieglitz.)
  • Goodrich, Lloyd, and Doris Bry. Georgia O'Keeffe: Retrospective Exhibition. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1970. (Features essays by the book's authors as well as a collection of 74 illustrations of well-known O'Keeffe paintings.)
  • Lovingly, Georgia: The Complete Correspondence of Georgia O'Keeffe and Anita Pollitzer. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990. (A portrait of the relationship between Georgia O'Keeffe and Anita Pollitzer.)
  • Messinger, Lisa Mintz. Georgia O'Keeffe The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Thames & Hudson, 1988. (A good overview by a professional art historian including extremely useful information.)
  • Peters, Sarah W. Becoming O'Keeffe: The Early Years New York: Abbeville Press, 1991. (A very well-done book that focuses mainly on O'Keeffe's influences.)
  • Robinson, Roxana. Georgia O'Keeffe: A Life. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1989. (A richly detailed biography that draws on many previously unknown sources.)
  • Shannon, Laurel. "A tribute to Georgia O'Keeffe blossoms in the desert of New Mexico." CNN Interactive: Destinations July 1997. 11 Sept. 2000 http://www.cnn.com/TRAVEL/DESTINATIONS/9707/Okeeffe.santa.fe/ (A web site highlighting the opening of The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico.)

History and Thought of Western Man
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This page was designed by M.O. Last Revised 5/13/01.

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