Georgia O’Keeffe photograph by Allan Grant / The LIFE Picture Collection / Getty |
One of the pioneers of American modernism, Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986) was a member of Alfred Stieglitz’s circle of progressive artists who made it their mission to create a new and distinctly American art. She was one of the few women in the group and, to her frustration, contemporary critics often highlighted the ability of her work to express “femaleness.” In 1922 she complained that critics “make me seem like some strange unearthly sort of creature floating in the air — breathing in clouds for nourishment — when the truth is that I like beef steak — and like it rare at that.”
Born in Wisconsin, she studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and later at the Art Students League in New York. She married photographer Alfred Stieglitz in 1924, and during a long career created images of cityscapes, abstractions, landscapes, and her celebrated flower paintings. She taught for four years in Texas, where the wide-open spaces profoundly affected her art. In 1929 she started spending months at a time in New Mexico, telling friends in New York that “I never feel at home in the East the way I do out here … I feel like myself — and I like it.” After Stieglitz died, O’Keeffe settled in New Mexico and created haunting images of sun-bleached bones, clouds, and mesas. She was a true “Santa Fe character,” dressed severely in black or white, with her long dark hair pulled tightly back.
This is part 8 of 11 on the works of Georgia O’Keeffe:
1939 Sunset, Long Island oil on canvas-board 35.4 x 35.6 cm |
1939 Untitled (Hibiscus) oil on canvas 47.9 x 40.3 cm © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico |
1939 Waterfall, No. 2, Īao Valley, Maui oil on canvas 61 x 50.8 cm |
1939 White Bird of Paradise oil on canvas 48.2 x 40.6 cm Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico |
before 1940 Calla Lillies with Red Anenome oil on gessoed masonite 121.9 x 75.2 cm |
1940 From the White Place oil on canvas 76.2 x 60.9 cm © The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC © 2022 Georgia O’Keeffe Museum – Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York |
1940 Narcissa’s Last Orchid pastel 54.5 x 69.1 cm Princeton University Art Museum, New Jersey |
1940 Patio No.1 oil on canvas 70 x 38.3 cm |
1940 Stump in Red Hills oil on canvas 76.5 x 60.9 cm © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico |
1940 Untitled (Red and Yellow Cliffs) oil on canvas 60.9 x 91.4 cm © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico |
c1940 A Long Leaf (from Sketch Book) pencil on paper laid down on card 22.9 x 15.2 cm |
c1940 Untitled (Ghost Ranch Patio) pencil on tan paper 50.6 x 45.4 cm |
c1940s-50s Untitled (Cottonwood Tree) pencil on paper 25.4 x 34.6 cm |
1941 An Orchid pastel on paper mounted on board 70.2 x 55.2 cm MoMA, New York © 2022 Georgia O’Keeffe Museum – Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York |
before 1941 Turkey Feathers and Indian Pot oil on canvas 50.8 x 40.6 cm |
1941 Black Hills with Cedar oil on canvas 40.6 x 76 cm Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC © 2022 Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden |
1941 From a New Jersey Weekend II oil on canvas 91.5 x 61 cm Princeton University Art Museum, New Jersey |
1941 Mariposa Lilies and Indian Paintbrush oil on canvas 25.4 x 35.5 cm © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico |
1941 Pedernal oil on canvas 48.2 x 76.8 cm © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico |
1941 Red Hills and Bones oil on canvas 75.6 x 101.6 cm Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA © The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum – Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York |
1941 Road to Pedernal oil on canvas 15.5 x 25.4 cm © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico |
1941 Untitled (Pedernal) oil on board 17.7 x 40.6 cm © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico |
1941 White Feather oil on canvas 50.8 x 40.6 cm © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico |
1941-42 Pedernal oil on canvas 51.1 x 76.8 cm © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico |
1942 A Piece of Wood I oil on canvas 60.9 x 50.8 cm © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico |
1942 Feather with Bird’s Bone oil on canvas 50.8 x 30.5 cm |
1942 Feathers, White and Grey oil on canvas 40.6 x 30.4 cm © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico |
1942 It was a Man and a Pot oil on canvas 40.6 x 50.8 cm Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA |
1943 Untitled (Beauford Delaney) charcoal with stumping and erasing on paper 62.9 x 47.3 cm Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA © The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum – Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York |
before 1943 Cottonwood Tree in Spring oil on canvas 76.2 x 91.4 cm |
1943 Cliffs Beyond Abiquiu, Dry Waterfall oil on canvas 76.2 x 40.6 cm The Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York |
1943 Dead Piñon Tree oil on canvas 101.6 x 76.2 cm © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico |
1943 Head with Broken Pot oil on canvas 40.6 x 48.2 cm © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico |
1943 Horns oil on board 24.8 x 34.9 cm © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico |
1943 My Back Yard oil on canvas 45.7 x 61 cm |
1943 Pelvis with Pedernal oil on canvas 40.6 x 55.9 cm Munson-Williams-Proctor Art Institute, Utica, NY |
1943 Pelvis with the Distance oil on canvas 60.6 x 75.6 cm Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum – Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York |
1943 The Black Place oil on canvas 50.8 x 91.4 cm Art Institute of Chicago, IL |
1943 The White Place in Sun oil on canvas 71.1 x 55.9 cm © 2022 Georgia O’Keeffe Museum/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York |
1943 Untitled (Abstraction) charcoal and white chalk on paper 60.9 x 45.4 cm © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico |
c1943 Untitled (Ghost Ranch Cliff) pencil on tan paper 45.4 x 60.6 cm |
c1943 Untitled (New Mexico Landscape) oil on canvas 25.4 x 58.4 cm © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico |
c1943 Untitled (New Mexico Landscape) oil on canvas 33 x 84.1 cm © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico |
1944 Black Place I oil on canvas SFMoMA © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York |
1944 Black Place II oil on canvas 60.6 x 76.2 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
1944 Black Place III oil on canvas 62 x 104.4 cm © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico |
1944 Black Place IV oil on canvas 76.2 x 91.4 cm The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC |
1944-45 Untitled (Black Place) pencil on paper 19.7 x 26 cm |
c1944-45 Untitled (Black Place) pencil on paper 26 x 19.7 cm |
1945 Black Place I oil on canvas 75.2 x 90.6 cm Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minnesota © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum/Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York |
1945 Black Place II oil on canvas 61 x 76.2 cm The Vilcek Foundation, New York City © The Georgia O’Keeffe Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York |
1949 Black Place, Grey and Pink oil on canvas 91.4 x 121.9 cm Georgia O’Keeffe Museum (Santa Fe), Gift of The Burnett Foundation © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum/Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York |
1954 Photograph of the location for the Black Place series. |