Art

Oh for an OKeeffe

American born Georgia O’Keeffe was a painter whose fame was in the
purity of such noted still life’s as White Flower on Red, Red Cannas, Red
Canna, and Two Pears.

Born in Sun Prairie Wisconsin, Georgia O’Keeffe attended both the Art
Institute of Chicago and New York City’s Art Students League. Alfred
Stieglitz, later to become her husband, displayed her paintings in his New
York City gallery in 1916. Gorgeous O’Keefe works were displayed there
until Stieglitz’s death in 1946.

In 1949 her move to New Mexico influenced Georgia O’Keeffe to produce
some of her best-known works – larger than life still lifes of desert
scenery and flowers. Her subjects are realistic although painted in a
stark linear fashion, with clear and thin colors and bold abstract
patterns

Many Georgia O’Keeffe still life works have the contrast of realism
with some abstract effects. One, in particular, is her 1926 rendition of
Black Iris, which hands in New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. She
took a very realistic look at the black iris but enlarged it so
massively that its details actually become surprising, seeming to be
unfamiliar.

In the 1960’s Georgia O’Keefe became entranced with airplanes as her
mode of transportation. O’Keefe paintings with clouds and sky began to
emerge on a regular basis. One of her largest works is the 1965 Sky Above
Clouds, which has a massive width of 24 feet.

O’Keefe paintings, reproductions of which are available online, are
displayed all over the United States, both in public and private museums
as well as private home collections.