Georgia O'Keeffe

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Georgia O'Keeffe

"The meaning of a word - to me - is not as exact as the meaning of a color. Colors and shapes make a more definite statement than words. I write this because such odd things have been done about me with words. I have often been told what to paint. I am often amazed at the spoken and written word telling me what I have painted. I make this effort because no one else can know how my paintings happen. Where I was born and where and how I have lived is unimportant. It is what I have done with where I have been that should be of interest."

Georgia O'Keeffe

Georgia O'Keeffe is one of the most influential artists there is today. Her works are valued highly and are quite beautiful and unique. As a prominent American artist, Georgia O'Keeffe is famous for her images of gigantic flowers, city-scapes and distinctive desert scenes. All of these different phases represent times in her life. Throughout the seventy years of her creative career, Georgia O'Keeffe continually made some of the most original contributions to the art of our time.

As Georgia O'Keeffe's awareness of her sexuality heightened, she started to paint marvelous original abstractions in exuberant rainbows or colors. These colors seemed to celebrate her happiness. One of her paintings Music--Pink and Blue I, she encircles a "blue vaginal void with pulsating waves of rippling pink and white" (Lisle 102). From just looking at this picture you would not think that it was a vaginal void. There is always so much that you can get from a picture. Everyone that looks at it will definitely have a different interpretation of what they see in it. The white sizing under the smooth surface makes the colors luminate in Music--Pink and Blue I. The two oval shapes bring out the sea, sky, and other images. The central form is a little more complex. The left archway uses blues and pinks alternately. On the inner edge of the arch, pink hues mix in to rose with gray edges. The warm colors and lines are controlled yet fluid. As the title tells, an inner and outer harmony is reached.

Georgia O'Keeffe's Black Iris is noted for its sensual suggestiveness, but she insisted that she was representing the flower itself. She even flatly denied that the flower was a metaphor for female genitalia.

O'Keeffe's flowers were painted frontally and revealingly had the effect of mak...

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... into deeper indigos and grays. The dramatic contrasts in light and tone aid in the formation of space without causing too much motion in the scene. The strong lines throughout give the images more conceptual meaning. The mountains are tangible and solid, clearly separated from both the ground and the deep blue sky. The light dramatizes both the depth and clarity in the painting.

Georgia O'Keeffe is more concerned with the essential identity of things rather than the mere visual appearance. Suspicious of intellectual approaches to art, she was an introspective and independent visionary who thrived on isolation.

O'Keeffe's original American works encompass a wide vision from taut city towers to desertscapes in such vivid hues and startled the senses. Throughout history she has made contributions to the history of American art and as Americans we will be forever thankful.

Works Cited

Castro, Jan Garden. The Art and Life of Georgia O'Keeffe. New York: Crown

Publishers, 1985.

Laurie Lisle. Portrait of an Artist: A Biography of Georgia O'Keeffe. New York:

Seaview Books, 1980.

O'Keeffe, Georgia. Georgia O'Keeffe. New York: The Viking Press, 1976.

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