Georgia O’Keeffe Cheatsheet
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Birthdate: November 15, 1887 Born Georgia Totto O’Keeffe
Location: Sun Prairie Wisconsin
Died: March 6, 1986 Dies in Saint Vincent’s Hospital,
Sante Fe. Her Ashes were scattered across the landscape near Ghost Ranch.
Nationality: American
Styles:Imitative realism, Notan, Representational, Abstract,
3-Dimensional
Mediums (Media) used: Oil on canvas, Oil on board, watercolor, charcoal,
pastels, and clay (during 3-dimensional era)
Artistic Focus: Known for her images of flowers, skulls, trees,
landscapes, churches, nudes, and the American West.
often used elements of the
southwestern desert landscape in her work. Mountains, skulls and bones often
appeared in her paintings as did larger than life flowers. During her 70+ years
as both an artist and teacher, O’Keeffe’s art fluctuated between
representational and the abstract.
Painting Career: 1901-1984
Total number of works: 2000+
“Black Iris”, 1926
Georgia O’Keeffe was the
second of seven children and grew up on a farm in Sun Prairie Wisconsin. She
received art lessons at home, using prang drawing books, and her talents were
encouraged at school. She was educated in a one room school house on her
parents property.
1897: Georgia visits her
aunt Ollie, a woman of strong and idependent character, became a major
influence in her life.
1899: Dow’s instructional
manual “Composition” is published, proposing an approach to art that is
against Western realist tradition and favors historical, topical, and
geographical lines of development. This book is made by prang and was bought by
O’Keeffe. Sarah Mann, became O’Keeffe’s watercolor teacher.
1900: “The Book of Tea”
by Kakuzo Okakura was published and became important to O’Keefe’s style
early in her career.
1901: began attending Sacred
Heart Academy, a convent boarding school and wins a gold pin for her drawing.
1902: Her parents move to
Williamsburg Virginia, and she lives with Aunt Lola in Madison Wisconson. She
begins attending Madison High School. Her art teacher’s exercises from life
prove inspirational The teacher held up a jack in the pulpit and it was the
first time Georgia’s attention was called to the outline and color of any
growing thing with the idea of painting it.
1903 Enrolls in girl’s
boarding school, Chatham Episcopal Insititute, in Virginia, graduating in 1905
By the time she graduated from high school in 1905, O’Keeffe
determined make her way as an artist.
O’Keeffe pursued studies at
the Art Institute of Chicago (1905-1906), and the Art Students
League, New York (1907-1906), where she learned the principles of
what became Imitative Realism. While at the Art institute she
became immersed in the international art nouveau culture. During this time
Ernest Fenollasa lectures at the Art Institute. In 1908 she won the League’s William Merritt Chase still-life
prize for her oil painting “Untitled (Dead Rabbit with Copper Pot)”.
1908: O’Keeffe meets
Stieglitz for the first time at a Rodin exhibition
Shortly thereafter, however,
O’Keeffe runs out of money and caught the measles and quit making art, saying that she had known then that she could
never achieve distinction working in art.
In 1911 She teaches for the
first time at Chatham Epsicopal taking over for her teacher Elizabeth Willis.
Her interest in art was
rekindled four years later when she took a summer course for art teachers at
the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, taught by Alon Bement
of Teachers College, Columbia University. Bement introduced O’Keeffe to the
revolutionary ideas of his colleague at Teachers College, artist and art
educator Wesley Dow.
Dow believed that the goal of art was the expression of
the artist’s personal ideas and feelings and that such subject matter was best
realized through harmonious arrangements of line, color, and Notan (the
Japanese system of lights and darks). Dow’s ideas offered
O’Keeffe an alternative to imitative realism, and she experimented with them
for two years, while she was either teaching art in the Amarillo Texas public
schools or working summers in Virginia as Bement’s assistant.
O’Keeffe was in New York
again, thanks to aunt Ollie’s support from 1914-1915 taking courses at Teachers
College. By the fall of 1915, she was teaching art at Columbia College,
Columbia South Carolina. There she decided to put Dow’s theories to the
test. In an attempt to discover a
personal language to express her own feelings, she began a series of abstract
charcoal drawings that are now recognized as being among the most innovative of
all American art of the period. She mailed some of these drawings to a former
Columbia classmate, who showed them to internationally known photographer and
art impresario, Alfred Stieglitz, on Jan 1, 1916.
1916-1917: During this time
O’Keeffe studies from “Cubist and Post-Impressionists” by Artuhur
Jerome Eddy and Kandinsky’s “Concerning the Spiritual In Art’. These books influence O’Keeffe her use of
charcoal. She does a series of charcoal abstractions called “specials” that
have elements of international art Nouveau. With these abstractions she relates
her abstractions with music, a technique taught by Bement, Dow, and
Kandinsky. During these years she
starts using colors that are drawn in watercolor with a Japanese brush. “Along
the way I probably looked very carefully at Chinese and Japanese paintings
before I got to the Blue Lines.” In 1917 O’Keeffe made her first sale, a
charcoal called “Train at Night in the Desert”, 1916. During this year she
views the works of Marin, Walkdowitz, and Paul Strand, these
artists “made” her feel how color could impact art. In august of 1917 she
visits the rockies for the first time and this is her first glimpse of the high
mesa country in New Mexico.
In 1918 O’Keeffe recovers
from the flu and begins a series of nudes in watercolor that show the influence
of Rodin. During this time Stieglitz convinces her to move back to New York so
that she can recover from the flu. The room that she is staying in is brightly
colored in yellow and orange and this made her feel good. This influence showed
in her piece “59th Street Studio”. In 1918 O’Keeffe begins
increasing her mastery in oils, to the point that she was better at oils than
she was with pastels or charcoals.
1919: In 1919 O’Keeffe
borrowed a framing device from Dow-Fenollosa that allowed her to begin
enlarging her flower paintings in cropped close-up views such as “Red Flower”.
Stieglitz began corresponding with O’Keeffe, who returned to
New York that spring to attend classes at Teachers College, and he exhibited 10
of her charcoal abstractions in May at his famous avant-garde gallery, 291.
A year later he opened a one-person exhibition of O’Keeffe’s work. In the
spring of 1918 he offered O’Keeffe financial support to paint for a year in New
York, which she accepted, moving there from Texas where she had been teaching
at West Texas State Normal College, Canyon since 1916. Shortly after arriving in New York in June,
she and Stieglitz, fell in love and lived and worked together in New
York (during the winter and spring) and at the Stiegitz family estate at
Lake George, New York (summer and fall). The two were married in 1924. During
this time period O’Keeffe started a series of colorful improvisations inspired
by music.
In 1920 O’Keeffe renovated a
shed on the Lake George Estate. This shed as well as her favorite season, fall,
led to the piece “My Shanty, Lake George”, 1922. She starts exploring fruit, especially apples, in a series of small still-lifes in both oil
and charcoal. In 1922 She begins a yearly tradition of painting her favorite
red maple tree. “I wish people were all trees and I think I could enjoy them
then. In 1922 O’Keeffe designs an art
nouveau-style logo for “Manuscripts”, a magazine produced by Stieglitz. The two
worked this way until 1929, when O’Keeffe started spending every summer
painting in New Mexico.
From 1923 until his death in
1946, Stieglitz worked hard and efficiently to promote O’Keeffe and her
work, organizing annual exhibitions of her art at the Anderson Galleries
(1923-1925), The Intimate Gallery (1925-1929), and An American Place
(1929-1946). As early as the mid-1920’s, when O’Keeffe first began painting
large scale depictions of flowers as if seen close up, which are among
her best-known pictures, she had become recognized as one of America’s most
important and successful artists. 1924:
paints “leaf Motif#2”. Stieglitz suffers a kidney attack, a sign that his
health is fading.
1925: O’Keeffes large scale
paintings are first exhibited. During this year Stieglitz and O’Keeffe moved to
the 28th floor of the Shelton Hotel, in New York City. This apartment
had little to no color except for occasional flowers. While living at the
Shelton, she began painting the New York skyscrapers, while Stieglitz begins
doing the same in photographs. During this year she has her first urban
landscape “New York with Moon, 1925, on exhibit. O’Keeffe becomes known for her
use of color in its simplist terms.
1927: Has to give up
painting for a year due to surgeries to remove benign tumors.
Three years after Stieglitz’s
death (1949), O’Keeffe moved from New York to New Mexico, whose stunning
vistas and stark landscape configurations had inspired her work since 1929. She
lived at her Ghost Ranch house, which she purchased in1940, and at a
house she purchased in Abiquiu in 1945. O’Keeffe continued to work until the
late 1970’s when failing eyesight forced her to abandon painting.
She then became a three-dimensional artist, producing objects in clay until her
health failed in 1984. She died two years later in 1986, at the age
of 98.
During her years in New York
City (1907-1949) Georgia O’Keeffe became fascinated with the skyline of New
York. She enjoyed the urban landscape of bridges, factories, piers, and
skyscrapers; artists enjoyed painting these because they symbolically
represented America’s ingenuity and prowess, and its growth skyward. This
growth skyward of New York’s skyscrapers symbolically represents America
becoming one of the most powerful nations of the world during this time period.
One of O’Keeffe’s first paintings of the city was “Blue lines”
in 1916. This painting is a mixture of vertical and diagonal lines of
buildings as she saw them from her room. This first watercolor was first shown
in 1917 by Stieglitz at 291. “Black Lines” was painted in
1916. O’Keeffe didn’t really start to paint cityscapes until the mid 1920’s.
The reason she started to focus on the skyscrapers is because she said “In the
twenties, huge buildings sometimes seemed to be going up overnight in New York…
It was the building that made this fine shape, so I… painted it” The result of this
fascination let to “New York Street with Moon, 1925”. This was the first
of approximately 40 sketches, drawings and paintings of New York that she
completed between 1925-1949.
Around this time she began
living in 1925 at the Newly completed Shelton Hotel on Lexington Ave. at
49th street. This building and the views from its upper floors often
inspired her work. Among the Shelton- related works include “The Shelton
with Sunspots, N.Y. 1926”, “East Riverfrom the 30th story of
the Shelton Hotel, 1928”. “A Street”, 1926, shows an unidentifiable
but typical New York “Cavern”. With “New York Night”, 1926, O’Keeffe
responds to the city through abstraction.
After 1918, O’Keeffe lived
in New York at least part of each year until 1949, 3 years after Stieglitz’s
death, when she made New Mexico her permanent home. Her last two city pictures
include a charcoal and an oil painting both titled “Brooklyn Bridge”, 1949,
which many have interpreted as farewells to the city and to Stieglitz.
Although O’Keeffe always claimed to prefer the vast skies, and vistas of the
American Southwest, her studies in New York are among the most important of her
works, and of works of that period regarding New York City.
Georgia O’Keeffe’s Artwork (A Brief
Collection)
Dead Rabbit with Copper Pot, 1908
Oil on canvas
Trees at Glorieta, New Mexico,
1929
oil on canvas,
Series I—No.2, 1918
oil on board,
Oil on canvas, mounted to masonite
Examples of the
following can be found on
Decathlon flashcards, or click on the links mentioned above each category
Paintings featuring bones
The following can be viewed by clicking on: http://www.happyshadows.com/okeeffe/bones.htm
Goat’s Horn with Red,
1945
Cow’s Skull-Red, White
and Blue 1930
Cow’s Skull with Calico
Roses, 1931
From the Faraway Nearby,
1937
Horse’s Skull on Blue,
1930
Jawbone and Fungus, 1930
Mule’s Skull with Pink
Poinsettias, 1937
Thigh Bone with Black Stripe,
1930
Horse Skull with White
Rose, 1931
Ram’s Head-White
Hollyhock-Little Hills, 1935
The following can be viewed by clicking on http://www.happyshadows.com/okeeffe/bones2.htm
Pelvis Front, 1943
Pelvis Series, 1947
Pelvis with Shadow and
the Moon, 1943
Pelvis I, Pelvis with
Blue, 1944
Pelvis III (year
unknown)
Pelvis Series, Red with
Yellow, 1945
Pelvis With Moon, 1943
Painting Featuring Flowers
The following can be viewed by clicking on http://www.happyshadows.com/okeeffe/flowers.htm
Jack in the Pulpit No.
II, 1930
Jack in the Pulpit No.
III, 1930
Jack in the Pulpit No.
IV, 1930
Jack in the Pulpit No.V,
1930
Jack in the Pulpit No.
VI, 1930
Yellow Cactus, 1940
An Orchid, (year
unknown)
Black Iris III, (year
unknown)
Calla Lilly on Gray,
(year unknown)
Datura and Pedernal,
1940
Iris, 1929
The following can be viewed by clicking on http://www.happyshadows.com/okeeffe/flowers2.htm
Morning Glory with
Black, 1926
Oriental Poppies, 1927
Pansy, 1926
Petunia, (year unknown)
Petunias (year unknown)
Poppies, 1950
Poppy, 1927
Red Canna, 1920
Red Poppy, (year
unknown)
Red Canna (up close),
1923
The following can be viewed by clicking on http://www.happyshadows.com/okeeffe/flowers3.htm
Red Flower, 1919
Two Calla Lilies on
Pink, (year unknown)
Two Jimson Weeds, (year
unknown)
White Camelia, (year
unknown)
White Flower, 1929
White Flower, (year
unknown)
White Rose with Larkspur
No. 2, (year unknown)
Yellow Calla, 1926
Yellow Calla, (year unknown)
Pink Sweet Peas, 1927
The following can be viewed at the following link: http://www.happyshadows,com/okeeffe/new.htm
Black Cross, New Mexico, 1929
Black Place, Grey and Pink, 1949
Black Place I, 1945
Blue and Green Music, 1919
Cebolla Church, 1945
Cottonwood Tree in Spring, 1943
Datura and Pedernal, 1940
Drawing #8, 1915
Early #2, 1915
From the Faraway Nearby, 1937
From the Plains II, 1954
Hernandez Church, New Mexico, 1931
The following can be viewed by clicking on http://www.happyshadows,com/okeeffe/new2.htm
Horse Skull with White Rose, 1931
It Was Blue and Green, 1960
Nude Series VIII, 1917
Nude Series XII, 1917
Orange and Red Streak, 1919
Pelvis Front, 1943
Pelvis Series, 1947
Pelvis with Shadow and the Moon, 1943
Purple Hills Near Abiquiu, 1935
Ram’s Head-White Hollyhock-Little Hills, N.M. 1935
Ranchos Church, Taos, 1929
Red and Orange Hills, 1938-39
Red and Yellow Cliffs, 1940
Special No. 12, 1917
Special No. 15, 1916
Special No. 21, 1916
Special No. 4, 1915
The Mountain, New Mexico, 1931
The White Place in the Shadow, 1942
Thigh Bone with Black Stripe, 1930
Paintings that feature churches
The following can be viewed by clicking on http://www.happyshadows.com/okeeffe/crosses_and_churches.htm
Bell/Cross Ranchos Church, 1930
Black Cross, New Mexico, 1929 (Better know this one, this is one of her more famous works)
Fragment of the Ranchos de Taos, 1929
Grey Cross with Blue, 1929
Ranchos Church, Taos, 1929
Cebolla Church, 1945
Hernandez Church, New Mexico, 1931
Paintings that feature abstractions
The following can be viewed by clicking on http://www.happyshadows.com/okeeffe/abstractions.htm
Abstraction VI, (year unknown)
Grey Line with Black, Blue and Yellow, 1923
Line and Curve, (year unknown)
Abstraction IX, 1916
Black Abstraction, 1927
Blue I, 1958
Music Pink and Blue II, (year unknown)
Series I, No. 12, (year unknown)
A Celebration, 1924
Blue and Green Music, 1919
Drawing No.8, 1915
Early No. 2, 1915
The following can be viewed by clicking on http://www.happyshadows.com/okeeffe/abstractions2.htm
From The Plains II, 1954
It Was Blue and Green, 1960
Orange and Red Streak, 1919
Special No. 12, 1917
Special No. 15, 1916
Special, No. 21, 1916
Special No. 4, 1915
Paintings that feature trees
The following can be viewed by clicking on http://www.happyshadows.com/okeeffe/trees.htm
Autumn Trees-The Maple, (year unknown)
Bare Trunks with Snow, (year unknown)
Birch and Pine Trees-Pink, (year unknown)
Maple and Cedar-Red, (year unknown)
Oak Leaves, Pink and Gray, 1929
Old Maple, Lake George, 1926
Cottonwood Tree in Spring, 1943
The Lawrence Tree, 1929
Paintings that feature landscapes
The following can be viewed by clicking on http://www.happyshadows.com/okeeffe/landscapes.htm
New York Night, 1928-29
Sky Above White Clouds I, 1962
Black Place, Grey and Pink, 1949
Red and Orange Hills, 1938-39
Canyon with Crows, 1917
City Night, 1926
Dark Mesa and Pink Sky, 1930
Pink Dish and Green Leaves, 1928
East River from Shelton 2, 1926
Black Place I, 1945
Grey Hills, 1942
Red and Yellow Cliffs, 1940
To following can be viewed by clicking on http://www.happyshadows.com/okeeffe/landscapes2.htm
Evening Star VI, 1917
Long Pink Hills, 1940
Mountains and Lake, 1961
Purple Hills Near Abiquiu, 1935
Red Hills and Pedernal, (year unknown)
Soft Gray Alcade Hill, 1929-30
View From My Studio, 1930
View From My Studio, New Mexico, 1930
The Mountain, New Mexico, 1931
The White Place in the Shadow, 1942
Misc. Paintings
The following can be viewed by clicking on http://www.happyshadows.com/okeeffe/other_images.htm
3 Shells, 1937
Shell No. 1, 1928
Black Rock with Blue III, 1970
Red Hill and White Shell, 1938
White Canadian Barn No. 2, (year unknown)
Nude Series VIII, 1917
Nude Series XII, 1917
The following can be viewed by clicking on http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/okeeffe_georgia.html
Cottonwood III, 1944
A Storm, 1922
Red, White and Blue, 1931
Cebolla Church, 1945
Red Flower and Ranchos Church No. 1
Dark Mesa and Pink Sky, 1930
Horse’s Skull on Blue, 1930
Seaweed, (year
unknown)
Sunflower, New Mexico
Cos Cob, (year unknown)
White Rose with Larkspur No. 2, 1927
Poppy, 1927
Evening Star III, watercolor, 1917
East River from the Thirtieth Story of the Shelton Hotel
Pool in the Woods, Lake George, (year unknown)
Birch Trees at Dawn on Lake George, (year unknown)
New York, Night, 1928
Blue Nude, watercolor, 1917
Oriental poppies and Oak Leaves, Pink and Gray, (year
unknown)
Black Door with Red, 1954
Taos, New Mexico, 1931
Autumn Leaves- Lake George, N.Y.
Quotes from Georgia O’Keeffe (used to understand why she painted
what she painted)
Nobody sees a flower, really, it is so
small. We haven’t time- and to see takes time like to have a friend takes time.
If I could paint the flower exactly as I
see it no one would see what I see because I would paint it small like the
flower is small. So I said to myself- “I’ll paint what I see-what the flower is
tome but I’ll paint it big and they will be surprised into taking time to look
at it- I will make even busy New Yorkers take time to see what I see of
flowers.
…. Well, I made you take time to look at
what I saw and when you took time to really notice my flower you hung all your
own associations with flowers on my flower and you write about my flower as if
I think and see what you think and see of the flower – and I don’t.
-
Georgia O’Keeffe
-
Nothing is
less real than realism, Details are confusing. It is only by selection, by
elimination, by emphasis that we get at the real meaning of things – 1922
I am starting
all over now- Have put everything I have ever done away and don’t expect to get
any ofit out ever again- or for a long time anyway.
Whether the
flower or the color is the focus I do not know. I do know that the flower is
painted large to convey to you my experience of the flower- and what is my
experience of the flower if it is not color.
The painting
is like a thread that runs through all the reasons for the other things that
make one’s life.
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