Georgia O’Keeffe American Painter

Georgia O’Keeffe was one of the first Female American Artists to be accepted by the art world . This made her a key artist in the 20th Century.

O’Keeffe is most famous for her paintings of flowers O’Keeffe is most famous for her paintings of flowers. She painted over 400 flower paintings in a 14 year span beginning in the early 1920’s.

O’Keeffe was born in 1887 on a farm in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin O’Keeffe was born in 1887 on a farm in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. By the age of 17 she was an accomplished artist. After high school she went and studied art at the Art Institute of Chicago. After graduating college she moved to Texas to teach art.

She eventually traveled to New York to attend Columbia Teachers College. While there a friend showed her work to a well known gallery owner and photographer named Alfred Steiglitz.

Steiglitz was so impressed that he included O’Keeffe’s work in his next gallery show. She was furious that he had put up her work without her permission and demanded that they be removed. Steiglitz was supportive of O’Keeffe’s work and her paintings grew in popularity in a time when few women artists. Alfred Steiglitz

O’Keffee and Steiglitz became good friends and married in 1924 with O’Keeffe being 37 and Steiglitz 60.

Stieglitz took hundreds of pictures of O'Keeffe Stieglitz took hundreds of pictures of O'Keeffe. Some of those photographs sell for millions.

In 1929, O’Keeffe visited a friend in New Mexico and the experience changed her life and work. She began spending winters in NY and summers in New Mexico.

Objects symbolizing O’Keeffe’s new world became her primary subjects Objects symbolizing O’Keeffe’s new world became her primary subjects. She used bones, shells, flowers and trees. O’Keeffe also used colors associated with the desert, tans, grays, reddish browns and whites.

When Steiglitz died in 1946, O’Keeffe made New Mexico her permanent home.

During the 1970’s “back-to-nature” philosophies and the growing women’s movement made O’Keeffe’s work enormously popular.

O’Keeffe gave up painting when she reached her 80’s but still lived to the ripe old age of 98. She passed away in March 1986.

In some of her paintings she used a technique called Monumentalizing In some of her paintings she used a technique called Monumentalizing. This when you enlarge and crop a portion of the subject so much that it almost turns into an abstract design.

In some cases O’Keeffe abstracted the flower so much that it is not immediately recognizable as a flower. Abstract is creating a design with no noticeable subject matter, often a composition composed of lines, shapes and colors.

Certain kinds of flowers held special significance to O’Keeffe Certain kinds of flowers held special significance to O’Keeffe. One spring while in Lake George, NY she came across a group of wild flowers called “Jack-in-the-pulpits.” O’Keeffe was so fascinated by these flowers that she based a series of paintings on them. This series became her celebration of spring and the renewal of life.

As O’Keeffe’s work progressed, she became interested in depicting the negative shapes as much as the positive. This piece is from her pelvis series.