O'Keeffe

Gerry Souter

• Publisher: Parkstone International
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9781844841196
• eBook ISBN: 9781781606162
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Art Techniques

In 1905 Georgia travelled to Chicago to study painting at the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1907 she enrolled at the Art Students' League in New York City, where she studied with William Merritt Chase. During her time in New York she became familiar with the 291 Gallery owned by her future husband, photographer Alfred Stieglitz. In 1912, she and her sisters studied at university with Alon Bement, who employed a somewhat revolutionary method in art instruction originally conceived by Arthur Wesley Dow. In Bement's class, the students did not mechanically copy nature, but instead were taught the principles of design using geometric shapes. They worked at exercises that included dividing a square, working within a circle and placing a rectangle around a drawing, then organising the composition by rearranging, adding or eliminating elements. It sounded dull and to most students it was. But Georgia found that these studies gave art its structure and helped her understand the basics of abstraction. During the 1920s O'Keeffe also produced a huge number of landscapes and botanical studies during annual trips to Lake George. With Stieglitz's connections in the arts community of New York – from 1923 he organised an O'Keeffe exhibition annually – O'Keeffe's work received a great deal of attention and commanded high prices. She, however, resented the sexual connotations people attached to her paintings, especially during the 1920s when Freudian theories became a form of what today might be termed "pop psychology". The legacy she left behind is a unique vision that translates the complexity of nature into simple shapes for us to explore and make our own discoveries. She taught us there is poetry in nature and beauty in geometry. Georgia O'Keeffe's long lifetime of work shows us new ways to see the world, from her eyes to ours.

Table of contents

• 1. Portrait of Georgia O’Keeffe.
• 2. Blue Lines, No10, 1916.
• 3. Special No32, 1914.
• 4. Abstraction, 1916, 1979-1980.
• 5. Abstraction IX, 1916.
• 6. Nude Series XII, 1917.
• 7. Evening, 1916.
• 8. Evening Star III, 1917.
• 9. Orange and Red Streak, 1919.
• 10. Apple Family II, 1920.
• 11. Light Coming on the Plains II, 1917.
• 12. From the Plains, 1919.
• 13. Music, Pink and Blue II, 1919.
• 14. From the Lake No1, 1924.
• 15. Light Iris, 1924.
• 16. Black Iris III, 1926.
• 17. Black and Purple Petunias, 1925.
• 18. The Shelton with Sunspots, 1926.
• 19. City Night, 1926.
• 20. New York, Night, 1928-1929.
• 21. Radiator Building, Night, New York, 1927.
• 22. Black Abstraction, 1927.
• 23. Red Hills and the Sun, Lake George, 1927.
• 24. Oriental Poppies, 1928.
• 25. Two Calla Lilies on Pink, 1928.
• 26. Wave, Night, 1928.
• 27. Ranchos Church, 1929.
• 28. Bell, Cross, Ranchos Church, New Mexico, 1930.
• 29. Cross with Red Heart, 1932.
• 30. Cross, 1929.
• 31. Lake George Window, 1929.
• 32. Jack-in-the-Pulpit IV, 1930.
• 33. Jack-in-the-Pulpit III, 1930.
• 34. Black Mesa Landscape, New Mexico / Outback of Marie’s II, 1930.
• 35. Purple Hills near Abiquiu, 1935.
• 36. Cow’s Skull: Red, White and Blue, 1931.
• 37. Summer Days, 1936.
• 38. From the Faraway Nearby, 1937.
• 39. Gerald’s Tree I, 1937.
• 40. Mule’s Skull with Pink Poinsettias, 1936.
• 41. Two Jimson Weeds, 1938.
• 42. White Camellia, 1938.
• 43. Stump in Red Hills, 1940.
• 44. Grey Hills, 1942.
• 45. Cliffs beyond Abiquiu, Dry Waterfall, 1943.
• 46. Pelvis with Pedernal, 1943.
• 47. A Black Bird with Snow-Covered Red Hills, 1946.
• 48. Pelvis III, 1944.
• 49. Black Place IV, 1944.
• 50. Black Place Green, 1949.
• 51. In the Patio I, 1946.
• 52. My Last Door, 1954.
• 53. Patio with Black Door, 1955.
• 54. Lavender Hill with Green, 1952.
• 55. From the Plains II, 1954.
• 56. Only One, 1959.
• 57. Blue, Black and Grey, 1960.
• 58. Blue B, 1959.
• 59. It Was Red and Pink, 1959.
• 60. Sky above Clouds I, 1963.
• 61. Sky above Clouds III, 1963.
• 62. Road to the Ranch, 1964.
• 63. Black Rock with Red, 1971.
• BIOGRAPHY
• 64. Malcolm Varon, Georgia O’Keeffe at the Age of Ninety at Ghost Ranch, New Mexico, 1977.
• 65. Abstraction, 1945, 1979-1980.