Georgia ‘O Keeffe

Georgia ‘O Keeffe

(1887-1986)

sample work
Bella Donna, 1939; oil on canvas; private collection, loan to ‘O Keeffe museum

Representing the flower

‘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. if i could paint the flower exactly as i see it no one would see what i see because i would paint it small like the flower is small.

So I said to myself – 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.

…Well, I made you take time to look at what i saw and when you took time to really notice my flower you hung all your own associations with flowers on my flower and you write about my flower as if i think and see what you think and see of the flower – and i don’t.’

Georgia O’ Keeffe

Bio

One of the most famous twentieth century woman artists in the world.

‘O Keeffe was born in Wisconsin, but lived a good part of her life in her beloved New Mexico, where she painted many of her paintings.

Besides in her home state Wisconsin, she studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and the New York art student’s league. Georgia married Alfred Stieglitz, a distinguished photographer, who discovered and promoted her work.

She started with abstractionism in 1915, and made numerous works of flower close-ups, landscapes and skulls. Her paintings are characterized by asymmetrical compositions, flat colors and spare forms.

Georgia O’ Keeffe produced approximately 2,000 2D art works during the 80 years she was active as an artist. She also worked in clay later in life, when her eyesight worsened. When she died, she held 400 oils, charcoals, pastels, pencils, and watercolors, plus 700 sketches in her personal collection.

Museums

locally celebrated, her works are featured in the Georgia ‘O keeffe museum in downtown Santa Fe, new Mexico.

‘o keeffe’s art is also featured in other great museums around the world, including the NY MOMA, SF MOMA, Guggenheim, Tate, Prada, etc. special exhibitions of her work are frequently organized, as can be seen in our news section.

Reference Books

1. O’ Keeffe’s O’Keeffes: the artist’s collection, by Barbara Buhler Lynes, a.o.; Thames & Hudson, 2001

‘ .. explores and showcases the significance of Georgia O’Keeffe’s collection of her own work and comprises 75 seminal works reproduced in full color and dating from around 1910 down through the 1960s. unique, impressive, O’Keeffe’s O’Keeffe’s is an essential volume for students of American art history in general, and the life and work of Georgia O’Keeffe in particular. ‘ Midwest book review, Oregon, WI

.. ‘Lynes looks at O’Keeffe’s possible motivations for keeping these particular works for herself, including specific strategies learned from husband and mentor Alfred Stieglitz to market her art and maintain her financial security. for example, O’Keeffe might have kept a number of her charcoal abstractions out of the public eye, as they were not as marketable and distracted from her image as a painter of imagery of the southwestern united states. she also seems to have held back pieces that she felt were important examples of her work, including the "evening star" watercolors…’ Sandra Rothenberg, Framingham, MA.

2.  A wonderful gift of ‘O Keeffe’s magic touch: Georgia O’Keeffe: the Poetry of Things by Elizabeth Hutton Turner, a.o.; Yale university press,1999

Elegant color images of her work are interwoven with biographical details and photos of her life, all encaptuled by ‘o keeffe’s portrait by Ansell Adams in the book. ‘this stunning book is the first in-depth exploration of Georgia o`keeffe`s unique contribution to still-life painting. it features beautiful full-page reproductions of some sixty of her paintings, related photographs, essays that discuss the sometimes surprising formative influences on o`keeffe`s approach to objects, and an illustrated chronology of her life.’ border regional library association note to its southwest book award

‘…. the companion catalog to the O’Keeffe exhibition at the Phillips gallery in Washington, dc. ….. what impressed me most about the exhibition (and the book) is how intelligently it was put together. it examines O’Keeffe’s development as an artist by tracking both her philosophy and her influences, and some rarely shown works were chosen to represent this in the exhibition (and are reproduced in the book). of all the books on O’Keeffe that I’ve read, and of all the exhibitions I’ve seen of her work, this one by far does the best job of explaining both the artist and her work.’ robin black, Washington dc