Me'a Wa'ahni Townsend
Artist Blog
The Rad, The Radiant...Georgia O'Keeffe
1887 - 1986
From
Sun Prairie, Wisconsin; Georgia O’Keeffe studied at the Art Institute of
Chicago (1905-1906) and also studied at the Art Students League in New York
(1907-1908) learning the techniques of traditional realist painting. The
Direction of her practice turned in 1912 when she started studying the work of
Arthur Wesley Dow, who had an emphasis on composition and design. She
experimented with Dow’s concept while she taught in South Carolina and Texas.
By
the mid.-1920’s, O’Keeffe was recognized as one of America’s most important and
successful artists; known best for her paintings of New York skyscrapers and
flowers.
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Brooklyn Bridge
Oil on Masonate
47 15/16 X 35 7/8
in.
1949
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Jimson Weed/ White Flower No. 1
Oil on canvas
48 X 40 in.
1932
She
began visiting New Mexico and fell in love in 1929, she began spending all her
time there, painting the landscape, architecture and bleached animal bones.
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From the Faraway, Nearby
Oil on canvas
36 X 40 1/10 in.
1937
She
made New Mexico her permanent home in 1949, three years after her husband,
Alfred Stieglitz, died.
In
the 1950’s she began to travel internationally, creating epic paintings of the
places she visited – mountain peaks in Peru and Japan’s Mount Fuji.
At
73 years-old, she began a new series focusing on clouds in the sky and rivers
below.
She
finished her last unassisted painting in 1972 – she was getting older and was
discouraged by her failing eyesight.
Later
she got a bunch of assistants together and went back to painting her favorite
motifs from memory and vivid imagination.
She
died in Santa Fe in 1986 at the age of 98.
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Black Iris VI
Oil on canvas
36 X 24 in.
1936
She is known for her close-up
flowers, her signature described as “petals and blooms become abstracted into
sweeping shapes and swaths of color”. She created her own style and paved the
way for women artists to come. She had original contributions to American
Modernism.
Music, Pink and Blue No. 2
Oil on canvas
35 X 29 9/10 in.
1918
Citations
“About Georgia O’Keeffe”.
Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, 2017.
“Georgia O’Keeffe”.
Artsy. Artsy, 2017.
I really like how the perspective, color, and shape of the Iris is very humanlike. It evokes a kind of bodily movement that I think is really beautiful and she captures that really well. I also love people who like to paint New Mexico, because I think it's like, the best thing.
ReplyDeleteHahaha yessss Georgia is bomb and New Mexico painters are chill. I just love O'Keeffe's use of color, especially in her flower paintings.
DeleteI absolutely love Georgia. I did paintings that were inspired by her painting, "From faraway, Nearby." I love her the way she uses color and captures New Mexico. There is a great museum up in Santa Fe full of her work.
ReplyDeleteI never realized into rather recently how important this woman's work is. Growing up a lot of people would comment on how vuglar her work is. When I grew up I realized that most of those people where very narrowed minded.
ReplyDelete