Georgia O’Keeffe

    Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986) was a major figure in 20th-century American Art and a pioneer of American Modernism, known for her paintings of flowers, landscapes, and bones. Born in Wisconsin, O’Keeffe received art training in Chicago, Virginia, and New York. In 1915, while teaching elementary school art in South Carolina, O’Keeffe produced a series of charcoal drawings that marked a turning point in her career. The bold lines and abstract compositions caught the attention of Alfred Stieglitz, prominent photographer and owner of the gallery 291 in New York. Stieglitz went on to give O’Keeffe her first solo exhibition in 1917. From then on, he continued to promote O’Keeffe’s work through their marriage in 1924 and until his death in 1946. Through Stieglitz, O’Keeffe connected with many American Modernist painters, photographers, critics, and writers who both validated and influenced her artwork.

    Two of Georgia O’Keeffe’s paintings, Flower and Vase (1921) and Pelvis with Pedernal (1943), provide further insight into her distinctive style and close connection with nature. Flower and Vase is a 10 x 8 ¼ inch oil painting that is part of the Kevin and Karen Kennedy Collection. The piece was made during a time in which O’Keeffe was beginning to establish her reputation as an “innovative modernist.” In the 1920s, O’Keeffe began painting landscapes and botanical studies that were inspired by trips to Lake George, where the Steiglitz family had a summer home. Though painting from observation, O’Keeffe transformed the natural elements into more abstract, dynamic shapes. The organic, sweeping forms and swaths of color with which we now associate her work began to take shape at this time, as seen in Flower and Vase.

Flower and Vase depicts a pale purple, circular flower in a short, cylindrical vase. Leaves, painted in a deep green hue, sprout above the flower. Though the flower is mostly a circular shape, O’Keeffe evokes its center and petals through subtle nuances in color. The flower is placed slightly below the center of the canvas. This arrangement, in addition to the shadow directly under it, gives the flower a sense of heaviness and movement downwards. In contrast, the leaves point upwards, and the green color conveys a sense of growth and liveliness. The plant is a single entity, but some of its parts are thriving while another is drooping. The contrast created by the muted flower and its rich leaves creates a delicate balance in the painting, suggesting the concept of aging–the simultaneous acts of dying and living.

In the 1920s, O’Keeffe also painted magnified compositions of flowers on larger canvases. The enlarged lines and shapes of petals appear to be abstract, but she painted from observation and her own life experience. The close-up images of these large pieces surround viewers, allowing them to experience O’Keeffe’s reflection of the natural world. The smaller scale of Flower and Vase provides O’Keeffe’s intimate perspective in a different way. By having to get closer to the work, viewers are drawn into the painting and can see the artist’s individual handiwork. Flowers, whether depicted on an enlarged or smaller scale, were a tool through which O’Keeffe combined observation and abstraction and explored her close relationship with nature.

O’Keeffe’s Pelvis with Pedernal (1943) is a 16 x 22 inch oil painting depicting a large, white pelvis bone in the foreground, with a mountain and light blue sky in the background. The piece was shown at Stieglitz’s gallery, An American Place, in 1944, along with other works by O’Keeffe depicting enlarged flowers and landscapes. The painting is now part of Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute’s Permanent Collection. O’Keeffe had a home at Ghost Ranch in New Mexico, and she was able to study and paint the titular Pedernal Mountain directly from her studio. After she died, her ashes were scattered atop the mountain, emphasizing the deep bond she felt with Pedernal. During her walks in New Mexico, O’Keeffe found animal bones white-washed by the sun. She was most interested in the holes in the pelvis bones, and she would hold them up to the sun and see the sky through them. This action is depicted in Pelvis with Pedernal, in which the pelvis bone is juxtaposed with the desert sky. 

To O’Keeffe, bones signified life and the eternal beauty of the desert rather than death. This perspective is enforced by her decision to flip the scale in Pelvis with Pedernal. She makes the bone larger and the object of focus, placing Pedernal in the background. O’Keeffe’s rendering of the pelvis conveys the weathered surface of the bone. Her brushstrokes are not very evident, emphasizing the bone’s smoothness. The various shades of gray, brown, and white evoke the concave landscape of the pelvis bone and its curving, complex shape. In contrast, Pedernal in the background is a simply-rendered blue silhouette.

Pelvis with Pedernal conveys strength and tension through the use of various contrasting elements. The bone creates a strong diagonal across the canvas, cutting through Pedernal and the sky. The crevices and swells of the bone directly contrast with the flatness of the mountainous shape, further giving life and movement to the pelvis. The bone is a large, solid space to interact with, while the simplicity of the sky and Pedernal emphasizes the open space of the New Mexico landscape and its vast emptiness. Together, the hard, weathered bone and the endless blue sky presents the resilience and persistence of life and nature, even in a place such as the desert which is considered dry and barren.

Flower and Vase and Pelvis with Pedernal show Georgia O’Keeffe’s view on life and death in the natural environment. These paintings do not directly show human interaction with nature, but they evoke a deep, personal concern for contemplating and living with nature. They also demonstrate a progression in O’Keeffe’s style from a more traditional composition to a provocative and individual vision. O’Keeffe remains a significant artist today, and her style is easily recognizable. Her influence stems from her originality and exploration of landscapes, flowers, and bones that spanned decades. While art trends shifted throughout the 20th century, O’Keeffe remained true to her vision in finding essential forms in nature, whether they were powerful, animated, delicate, or sensual. Through this process in her painting, she developed strong, intimate relationships with nature and with the places she lived. In turn, her close connection to her surroundings vitalized her work.

Works Cited:

“10 things to know about Georgia O’Keeffe.” Impressionist & Modern Art | Artists. Christies, May 16, 2019. https://www.christies.com/features/Georgia-O-Keeffe-7330-1.aspx

“About Georgia O’Keeffe.” Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. Accessed September 30, 2019. https://www.okeeffemuseum.org/about-georgia-okeeffe/.

“Georgia O’Keeffe (American, 1887–1986).” Artnet. Accessed September 30, 2019. http://www.artnet.com/artists/georgia-okeeffe/biography.

Messinger, Lisa. “Georgia O’Keeffe (1887–1986).” Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, October 2004. https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/geok/hd_geok.htm.

“Pedernal Society.” Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. Accessed September 30, 2019. https://www.okeeffemuseum.org/support/pedernal-society/.

“Pelvis with Pedernal.” MWPAI Online Collections. Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. Accessed September 30, 2019. http://collections.mwpai.org/objects/11870/pelvis-with-pedernal?ctx=25d3ba56-27d5-4aa

Tomkins, Calvin. “Georgia O’Keeffe’s Vision.” The New Yorker, March 4, 1974. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1974/03/04/the-rose-in-the-eye-looked-pretty-fine.