Georgia O'Keeffe

Introduction

Georgia O'Keeffe's name immediately brings to mind images of vibrant, oversize blossoms, desert landscapes and floating cattle skulls. Despite their undeniable beauty and elegance, these images were considered radical when they were first exhibited, as they said something new and bold about America, its artists and the way in which they saw the world. It may be somewhat surprising, therefore, to learn that these paintings by O'Keeffe — the ones with which we are most familiar, the ones reproduced on countless notecards, calendars and posters — were actually among the least radical canvases produced by this pioneering artist. This paper discusses Georgia O'Keeffe and her works.

Discussion

When she was thirteen, Georgia O'Keeffe announced she would become an artist. She was never sure where the idea came from, but she remembered the moment she discovered a tiny pen-and-ink drawing called Maid of Athens in one of her mother's books.

When Georgia died in March 1986, at the age of ninety-eight, she left behind a body of work that represented her unique view of the world around her. She believed in herself and dared to present bold and original subjects in a way they had never before been painted. For over sixty years, she continued painting her enormous flowers, canvases celebrating the skies, and floating animal skulls, while others were switching styles to keep up with the latest trends. Her interpretations of nature vibrate with unusual strength despite their simplicity of form and color. (Benke 18)

Georgia was born in rural Wisconsin in 1887, where the land made an early and lasting impression on her. The changing seasons with their cycle of crops, the fragrance of the earth, the straight, orderly rows of growing corn never failed to amaze her.

Some artists paint the human figure. Not Georgia. She chose to paint the weathered barns of her Wisconsin farmlands, the evening star or the canyons of Texas, the skyscrapers of New York, the flowers she found wherever she lived. Rather than paint a delicate bouquet of flowers as many artists had before, Georgia chose to magnify one or two flowers. (Castro 19)

Georgia drew the velvety purple jack-in-the-pulpit over and over, from every angle, exactly the way it grew. Then she began to experiment by drawing just one portion of the wildflower, varying its size and the intensity of its color. At first it was possible to recognize the flower, but with each variation its shape was simplified until it was no longer familiar. She captured the spirit of the flower or the shell or the scene she was painting, and she forced us to see it in a new way. When an artist chooses to simplify an object, rather than paint it as real-looking as possible, the artwork becomes abstract. We are seeing qualities in the object that the artist wants us to pay attention to.

As a young woman, Georgia accepted a number of teaching jobs in order to support herself. She brought to her students an idea she ...