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Georgia O'Keeffe was a pioneering American modernist painter, best known for her paintings of enlarged flowers, New York skyscrapers, and New Mexico landscapes. O'Keeffe's work has been exhibited at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, with her paintings also being featured in the museum's Variations on America: Masterworks from American Art Forum Collections exhibition. The museum's collections include 48 photos of O'Keeffe's daily life, taken by Life magazine photographer John Loengard in 1966. While the exact number of O'Keeffe's paintings at the Smithsonian is unclear, her work continues to be celebrated and recognised as a unique contribution to American art.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Number of paintings | 238 |
| Type of art | Abstract art, including close-ups of flowers, cityscapes, landscapes, and skulls |
| Museums | Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, Smithsonian American Art Museum |
| Year of first painting | 1916 |
| Year of last unassisted oil painting | 1972 |
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What You'll Learn
Georgia O'Keeffe's paintings at the Smithsonian American Art Museum
Georgia O'Keeffe is one of the most renowned American artists, best known for her paintings of enlarged flowers, New York skyscrapers, and New Mexico landscapes. O'Keeffe has been recognised as a pioneer of American modernism and was the first female modernist painter in the United States. She was born in 1887 in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, and knew from a young age that she wanted to be an artist. After finishing her formal education, which included traditional painting lessons, she attended the Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Students League in New York.
The Smithsonian American Art Museum celebrates O'Keeffe's work and legacy. One of her paintings, "Only One" (1959), is featured in the museum's collection. It is an oil on canvas painting with dimensions of 36 x 30 1⁄8 inches (91.5 x 76.4 cm). The painting exemplifies O'Keeffe's innovative fusion of abstraction and representation, capturing the world as she saw it through colour and emotional expression.
O'Keeffe's association with photographer Alfred Stieglitz and other artists of his circle has left a rich record of her presence and influence. Her time spent in the Southwest, particularly in New Mexico, inspired many of her iconic paintings, including those of New Mexico landscapes and animal skulls. The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, established after her death in Santa Fe, showcases nearly 150 of her paintings and hundreds of works on paper, including drawings, pastels, and watercolours.
In addition to her paintings, O'Keeffe's will to create art persevered even as her eyesight diminished later in life. With the assistance of others, she continued to draw upon her favourite motifs and vivid imagination. Her dedication to her craft is evident in her words: "I can see what I want to paint. The thing that makes you want to create is still there."
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O'Keeffe's New Mexico paintings
Georgia O'Keeffe is one of the most significant artists of the 20th century, known for her contribution to modern art. She was born in 1887 and grew up on a farm near Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. O'Keeffe's artistic practice shifted dramatically when she studied the revolutionary ideas of Arthur Wesley Dow and began experimenting with abstraction. She was a pioneer of American modernism and a member of Alfred Stieglitz's circle of progressive artists.
O'Keeffe first visited New Mexico in 1929, and the stark landscape and Native American and Hispanic cultures of the region inspired a new direction in her art. She spent most summers living and working in New Mexico until she made the state her permanent home in 1949.
In addition to her New Mexico landscapes, O'Keeffe was inspired by the area's churches, crosses, and folk art, as well as Native American subjects. She created numerous drawings, watercolors, and paintings of katsina tithu (kachina or katsina dolls) between 1931 and 1945. O'Keeffe also painted some of the area's architecture, including "Blue-Headed Indian Doll" (1935).
The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe works to protect the now-threatened scenes that the artist painted in northern New Mexico. The museum has developed the Georgia O'Keeffe 3D Landscape Viewer, which uses Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology to map and catalog the locations depicted in O'Keeffe's works.
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O'Keeffe's fusion of abstraction and representation
Georgia O'Keeffe is one of the most significant artists of the 20th century, renowned for her contribution to modern art. She is best known for her iconic representations of flowers, landscapes, and animal bones. However, her abstract work is equally bold and breathtaking, and she is considered one of America's first abstract artists. O'Keeffe herself found it "surprising how many people separate the objective from the abstract," as she regularly shifted between abstraction and representation in her work.
O'Keeffe began her artistic career in 1905, studying traditional painting techniques at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Students League in New York. However, her artistic direction shifted dramatically in 1909 when she encountered the revolutionary ideas of Arthur Wesley Dow. Inspired by Dow, O'Keeffe began experimenting with abstraction, creating a series of abstract charcoal drawings. These early abstractions featured fluid, curvilinear forms reminiscent of Art Nouveau, with a limited palette of black and white.
In 1916, O'Keeffe reintroduced colour into her work, inspired by the elemental landscape of western Texas. Throughout her career, she continued to create abstract art to express herself and depict her surroundings and subjects. Her abstract paintings often featured crisp lines, rich colours, and simple shapes, lending themselves well to use on posters. O'Keeffe's time in Texas profoundly impacted her art, as she found inspiration in the wide-open spaces and the region's Native American and Hispanic cultures.
In the 1920s, O'Keeffe became widely known for her paintings of enlarged flowers, but she regularly returned to abstraction. During this period, she also painted cityscapes and landscapes, including depictions of New York skyscrapers, which were considered an essentially American symbol of modernity. O'Keeffe's artistic language broadened to include representational subjects, usually taken from nature, such as bones, buildings, hills, flowers, and crosses. She evolved a highly personal style within the disciplined forms of her southwestern subjects.
In the 1940s, O'Keeffe once again returned to abstraction, creating forms inspired by the natural world that corresponded to abstract forms in her imagination. She continued to explore abstraction and representation in her work until her last unassisted oil painting in 1972. Despite her failing vision, O'Keeffe's will to create did not diminish, and she enlisted the help of assistants to continue creating art until her death in 1986.
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![Georgia O'Keeffe Prints，Lake George [formerly Reflection Seascape] by Georgia O'Keeffe Poster Canvas Poster Wall Art Picture Prints Hanging Photo Gift Idea Decor Home Posters Artworks 12x18inch(30x45c](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61EV-Idf10L._AC_UL320_.jpg)
O'Keeffe's paintings in private collections
Georgia O'Keeffe is one of the most significant artists of the 20th century, known for her contribution to modern art. She is best known for her paintings of enlarged flowers, New York skyscrapers, and New Mexico landscapes. O'Keeffe has been recognised as the "Mother of American modernism".
O'Keeffe's paintings can be found in various private collections, including the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, which was established after her death. The museum's collections include nearly 150 paintings and hundreds of works on paper, such as pencil and charcoal drawings, pastels, and watercolours. The museum also houses her personal belongings, such as rocks, bones, dresses, and paintbrushes, as well as an extensive archive of documents and photographs relating to her life and times.
The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum offers an intimate, in-person experience through its museum galleries, while also providing online access to its entire collection. The museum sustains its work by collecting, providing access to, and preserving information about O'Keeffe, her contemporaries, and related regional histories.
In addition to the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, O'Keeffe's works are held in the collections of other museums, including the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., The Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. These museums showcase her artistic legacy and contribute to her recognition as a seminal American artist.
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O'Keeffe's paintings in other museums and galleries
Georgia O'Keeffe is one of the most significant artists of the 20th century, renowned for her contribution to modern art. Her works are in the collections of several museums worldwide, and following her death, the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum was established in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she had lived for 40 years. The museum's collections include nearly 150 paintings and hundreds of works on paper, including pencil and charcoal drawings, as well as pastels and watercolours.
The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum also houses a significant archive of documents and photographs relating to the artist's life and times, as well as her personal property, such as rocks, bones, dresses, and paintbrushes. O'Keeffe's works can also be found at the Art Institute of Chicago, where she studied, and which holds one of her paintings, titled "Sky above Clouds". The Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, Texas, holds another of her watercolour paintings, "Light Coming on the Plains No. II" (1917).
The Milwaukee Art Museum holds a work by O'Keeffe titled "No. 20 Special" (1916-1917), and West Texas A&M University holds another watercolour, "Palo Duro Canyon" (1916-1917). The Brooklyn Museum held a retrospective of her work in 1927, and in 1928, six of her calla lily paintings were sold to an anonymous buyer in France for $25,000, although there is no evidence this transaction occurred.
O'Keeffe's works are also held at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, where she is celebrated as one of the pioneers of American modernism. The museum's collections include striking paintings that capture the complexity and energy of American modernism, including early abstractions by O'Keeffe.
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