All About Georgia O'Keeffe

Introduction

Georgia O’Keeffe was an American artist. She was best known for her large paintings of nature, especially flowers and bones. She became the first female painter to gain respect in New York's art world in the 1920s.

Early Life

Georgia O’Keeffe was born on November 15, 1887, near Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. She grew up on a dairy farm. She received art lessons at home and was encouraged by teachers throughout her childhood.

O’Keeffe attended art school in Chicago and New York, then lived in Chicago for a while. During this period her works were abstract. Abstract art communicates ideas through colors and shapes that do not represent any specific object.

In 1912 she discovered the revolutionary ideas of an artist and designer called Arthur Wesley Dow. He emphasized the importance of composition - which means how you arrange shapes and colors.

Georgia O'Keeffe, No.12 Special, 1916

New York

In 1916, O’Keeffe sent some of her work to a friend in New York. Alfred Stieglitz, a famous photographer and gallery owner, saw her work and wanted to exhibit it. Stieglitz promoted O’Keeffe’s art. By the late 1920s O’Keeffe was one of New York’s most-celebrated modern artists.

Georgia met many other artists who, like her, were experimenting with abstract art. Art in the 1920's was exciting. Artists didn't want to just show how something looked in reality, but were using colors, shapes, and brush-marks in unexpected ways to express meanings, ideas, and feelings. This encouraged Georgia to develop her own unique style - a combination of abstract and realistic art.

Georgia O’Keeffe, Abstraction White Rose, 1927

Georgia O’Keeffe, New York Street with Moon, 1925

New Mexico

O’Keeffe spent the summer of 1929 working on her art in New Mexico. The landscape of New Mexico excited and inspired her. As well as the shapes of the landscape itself O'Keeffe was fascinated by the bones and skulls she found in the desert where she lived. In 1949 New Mexico became her permanent home. O’Keeffe produced paintings of the area’s unique natural and architectural forms.

Georgia O'Keeffe, Rust Red Hills, 1930

Georgia O’Keeffe, From the Faraway, Nearby, 1937

After 1959 O’Keeffe returned to abstract art. She continued painting until the mid-1970s, when her eyesight began to fail. She died in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on March 6, 1986.