March is Women’s History Month, and to celebrate, CCA will recognize some of our favorite female artists. Today’s artist is someone whom we will be studying later in the semester: GEORGIA O’KEEFFE!
O’Keeffe was born in Wisconsin in 1877 and decided to become an artist when she was just 12 years old! In 1916, her work came to the attention of Alfred Stieglitz (a strong promoter of modern art and an important photographer) who promised to support her and her work. They were married in 1924, and Stieglitz exhibited O’Keefe’s paintings and drawings at New York galleries continually until his death in 1946.
As seen above in O’Keefe’s Radiator Building, Night, New York (1927) and Stieglitz’s Looking Northwest from the Shelton (1932), O’Keeffe and Stieglitz were using similar language to create a uniquely American style of art.
O’Keefe is most well known for her slightly abstracted paintings of flowers, as seen above in Poppy (1927) and Blue and Green Music (1919/1921.) She traveled between the city and the country of New York, using both subjects in her work. By magnifying her flowers, O’Keeffe forced the viewer to consider the image in a new way. Have you ever looked that closely at a flower or plant?
In 1929, O’Keeffe began to visit New Mexico and moved there in 1949. While there, she created work that reflected the American Southwest like Cow Scull: Red, White, and Blue (1931).
Georgia O’Keeffe worked for over 70 years and had a prolific career. She received many honors and awards including the American Medal of Freedom and the National Medal of Arts. She is considered to be one of the most important American Modern Artists. Want to see Georgia O’Keefe’s work in person? Visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MoMA, or the Whitney to join us in CELEBRATING this amazing female artist!