The Flower of the West: Georgia O'Keeffe

American Painter 1887- 1986 

"Fill a space in a beautiful way" ~ Georgia O'Keeffe

 

Brief biography

Georgia O'Keeffe was an American abstract painter who was famous for her still-life compositions including flowers. She was born in Sun Prairie, a suburb of Madison, Wisconsin and attended the Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Students League in New York City. She was an art teacher in Texas from 1913 to 1918. While a teacher, an art gallery director, Alfred Stieglitz became interested in her work and agreed to put them on exhibit at the 291 Gallery in New York. Stieglitz exhibited her work every year until his death in 1946. In 1924 O'Keeffe and Stieglitz married until his death. Other galleries and museums exhibited her work, so the closing of this gallery did not harm her reputation.

 

O'Keeffe moved to New Mexico three years after the death of her husband. During that time, her exposure to desert flowers and landscapes provided great subject matter for her. She made single blossoms her sole subject matter in a number of paintings. Scenery such as cow skull bones also provided subject matter. Although she painted realistically, she gave her work an abstract effect by creating thin, clear paint and patterned compositions. Some would say her work borders on both the abstract and realism.

 

She painted one of her first flowers in 1926 called Black Iris, which is currently in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York City. Many of her flowers are quite large and become somewhat unfamiliar and surprising. In the 1960's she became inspired from her airplane flights and painted several sky and cloud scenes as seen from her plane. One of her largest works is called "Sky Above Clouds" (1965). It is 24 ft. (7.3 m) wide! O'Keeffe's work is sometimes found among art from the southwest such as the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art in Indianapolis.

 

Horse's Skull on Blue, 1930     Oil on canvas,  30" x 16" Arizonia University Art Museum	Georgia O'Keeffe's A Sunflower From Maggie. MFA. Prints available at many Art Print poster shops. See more Georgia O'Keeffe Sunflower Prints online. Compare to Vincent Van Gogh's Sunflowers	Georgia O'Keeffe Evening Star No. VI - 1917 watercolor 23x31cm Georgia O'Keeffe Art Museum Try some watercolor landscape studies of your own.

 

"When I found the beautiful white bones in the desert I picked them up and took them home too... I have used these things to say what is to me the wideness and wonder of the world as I live in it." ~ Georgia O'Keeffe

"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 (hear Georgia say this in the interview below from PBS)

 

Students who wrote this page obtained permission from websites at the time to use images shown. Some of those websites are no longer online. Images will be removed at the request of the copyright owners.

 

Georgia O'Keeffe on the Web

Georgia O'Keeffe - PBS Portrait of an Artist Georgia O'Keeffe was ahead of her time -- not only as an artist, but as a woman. Paul Solman of WGBH-Boston examines the life and art of this true American master. You can listen to a portion of this program online with Real Player. Hear Georgia O'Keeffe talk about her work.

 

Georgia O'Keeffe PBS American Masters. Biographical information.

 

Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Santa Fe, New Mexico, features the paintings of Georgia O'Keeffe, placing her artistic achievement in the history of American art. Biography (use this biography for research). 

 

Georgia O'Keeffe Fine Art Presentations High quality images that are good for PowerPoint images (for educational purposes)

 

Georgia O'Keeffe - National Gallery of Art  - Ten high quality images - Jack in the Pulpit -  Brief Biography

 

Georgia O'Keeffe - by Michelangelo.com. Site has beautiful images - Flowers, Ghost Ranch and bones.

 

Learn Greg Percy's song "Georgia"