ARTIST REPORT-Georgia O'Keefe
Georgia O’Keefe was born on November 15, 1887 near Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. Her parents were immigrants from Ireland and Hungary. She was instructed in art by her mother until 1900 when, at the age of twelve, O’Keefe attended painting classes. By the age of fourteen, Georgia had already proclaimed to a friend that she absolutely knew she was going to be an artist when she grew up. In 1902, Georgia was sent to a convent boarding school near Madison, Wisconsin. The next year she attended Madison high school. In 1904, Georgia was sent to the Chatham Episcopal Institute, where she would graduate at the age of seventeen. (Frazier,1990)
Georgia continued her art education studying at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1905 to 1906. She contracted typhoid fever and delayed school for a year while she recovered. In 1907, Georgia attended the Art Students League in New York, and won the school’s William Merritt Chase still-life prize in 1908 for her oil painting Dead Rabbit with Copper Pot. Her prize was a scholarship to attend the League's outdoor summer school at Lake George, New York
In 1908 visited the art gallery known as “291” on 291 Fifth Avenue with fellow students. It was owned by Alfred Stieglitz (stee-glitz) where “outrageous” new art being shown, Rodin at the time. They were there to argue with Stieglitz because modern art was in its very beginning stages and not widely accepted. What O’Keefe did not know was that in the near future, she would become a controversial artist as well. Alfred Stieglitz was a photographer and would later use O’Keefe as one of his most explored subjects. He took hundreds of photos of her clothed and nude, focusing on one particular area of her body, such as hands, feet, and torso. Some hypothesize that this was where O’Keefe got the idea to magnify her later paintings. (Frazier,1990)
In the fall of 1908, O'Keeffe abandoned the idea of pursuing a career as an artist, claiming that she could never distinguish herself as an artist within the mimetic tradition (imitative realism), which had formed the basis of her art training. Her family’s finances were also in question, so Georgia worked as a commercial artist in Chicago, drawing lace and embroidery for advertisements. O’Keefe contracted the measles which temporarily weakened her eyes, so she returned home. (Frazier, 1990) In the summer of 1912, Georgia decided to attend a course at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. She was once again inspired to paint when she was introduced to the innovative ideas of Arthur Wesley Dow who encouraged artists to express themselves using line, color, and shading harmoniously. From 1912 to 1914, she taught art in the public schools in Amarillo, Texas, and attended the Teachers College of Columbia University from 1914-15. (Frazier, 1990)
In 1915, O’Keeffe leaped into the forefront of American modernism with a group of abstract charcoal drawings. These charcoal drawings were among the most radical creations produced in the United States at that time. Next, O’Keefe added color to her repertoire; expressing the union of abstract form and color in paint. Soon after 1918, O'Keeffe began working primarily in oil, a shift away from having worked primarily in watercolor. (Bunyan, 2010)
By the mid-1920s, O'Keeffe began making large-scale paintings of natural forms at close range, as if seen through a magnifying lens. While she had painted flowers, O’Keefe considered herself a modern artist and often pursued abstract art. It was not until 1924 that she enlarged a blossom to an optic extreme. This is how Georgia O’Keefe started to make a name for herself. She painted the flowers as a protest against the pace of life in New York City where she lived that prevented people from taking time to really look at a flower.
Some critics claimed that her work was sexually explicit and referenced female genitalia. O’Keefe always denied all those claims often telling people that if they saw sexual symbols it was because of their own obsessions, not what she had painted. (Frazier, 1990) Pictured to the left is one of Georgia's most controversial flower paintings. It is from a series of paintings she did of black irises.
In the 1932 Georgia was under a lot of stress. She was commissioned to paint a mural at the Radio City Music Hall, but technical problems prevented it’s completion. Her marriage was struggling as well. Stieglitz had shown interest in a woman that frequented his galleries. Eventually Georgia had a mental breakdown. After she recovered, she started drawing in charcoal again. She found peace in the simplicity of nature. (Wikimedia Foundation Inc., 2012)
Between 1929 and 1949, O'Keeffe spent part of nearly every year working in New Mexico. She collected rocks and bones from the desert floor and made them and the distinctive architectural and landscape forms of the area subjects in her work. O’Keefe liked to focus on something in the foreground, but includes the distance as well. She also liked focusing on one object or one location and painting it in several ways. This is evidenced in her series paintings with the focal point being a bleached bone pelvis, the black place, sky above clouds, and black iris paintings. (Wikimedia Foundation Inc., 2012)
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Georgia's largest painting is in the Art Institute of Chicago. It is 8 feet tall and 24 feet wide. It is titled "Sky Above Clouds IV" and was painted in 1965.
Unfortunately, O’Keefe suffered from macular degeneration and eventually lost her eyesight. She stopped oil painting without assistance in 1972, but continued working in pencil and charcoal until 1984. She even worked a bit in clay as her eyesight diminished. Georgia O’Keefe died on March 6, 1986 at the age of 98 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She will forever be one of the most famous, influential, and successful women painters in modern art.
Reflection:
I have always enjoyed Georgia O'Keefe's paintings of flowers close up. Before I did this assignment, I had no idea that she had done so many other kinds of art. I even found out that one of my favorite pieces of art was done by her and I had no clue! It is titled "The Shell" and was drawn in 1934. I respect O'Keefe's work so much because she did so many varieties of paintings, drawings and sculpture. She painted and drew in realistic and abstract styles. She drew and painted nature, buildings, and bazaar shapes she saw only in her mind. Georgia O'Keefe will always be one of my favorite artists.
Resources:
Bunyan, Marcus, Dr. 2010. Exhibition: ‘Georgia O’Keefe: Abstraction’ at the Phillips Collection, Washington, DC. Retrieved on September 20th, 2012 from http://artblart.com/2010/03/18/exhibition-georgia-okeeffe-abstraction-at-the-phillips-collection-washington-d-c/
Frazier, Nancy. 2010. Georgia O’Keefe. Crescent Books. New York.
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 2012. “Georgia O’Keefe”. Retrieved on September 20th , 2012 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_O%27Keefe
Resources:
Bunyan, Marcus, Dr. 2010. Exhibition: ‘Georgia O’Keefe: Abstraction’ at the Phillips Collection, Washington, DC. Retrieved on September 20th, 2012 from http://artblart.com/2010/03/18/exhibition-georgia-okeeffe-abstraction-at-the-phillips-collection-washington-d-c/
Frazier, Nancy. 2010. Georgia O’Keefe. Crescent Books. New York.
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 2012. “Georgia O’Keefe”. Retrieved on September 20th , 2012 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_O%27Keefe