Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American
From a review at MOMA, NY in the summer of 2023 of her earliest works using pencil, pastel, watercolour and charcoal
Georgia O’Keeffe is very famous for her oil paintings, particularly of flowers.
She migrated to oil after she had mastered the use of pencil, charcoal, pastel and watercolour on paper.
She had been trained in the realism of the time and in 1908, disheartened, she stopped painting for 4 years.
She returned to painting when she discovered the theory and practice of Arthur Wesley Dow (1857-1922, American). Dow, was deeply influenced by Japanese art, particularly the work of Japanese print makers. The same who had captured the interest of European modernists towards the turn of the 20th century.
O’Keeffe went to NY to study with Dow at Columbia University’s Teachers College in 1912.
Dow threw out the notion that copying nature was the goal of art. He also rejected the primacy of painting and sculpture over the decorative arts.
Beauty, he said, was what art is about. And the way to achieve it was through the practice of a certain design principles to achieve ‘harmonious’ compositions. These should reflect beauty.
What he taught his students to capture was what he called ‘the essence of reality’:
the details made up of line, form, and colour.
Then to abstract these; and use a stripped-down pictorial vocabulary to compose and paint the image.
A Blackbird with Snow-Covered Red Hills, 1946, oil on canvas.
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. National Gallery, Washington, DC
The ‘trinity of power’, he said, inherent in harmonious design was line, the balance of dark and light, and colour.
Harmonious design is another word for beauty.
His influential textbook of exercises for painters and artisans was in use until the beginning of WW2.
Georgia O’Keeffe was the most successful of his students, who included her husband.
MOMA presented her earliest works after her adoption of Dow’s philosophy and practice.
Charcoal, pencil, pastel and watercolour; and a few oils on canvas.
**************
In 1916, her work, having been brought to the attention of Alfred Stieglitz ( American photographer and gallerist, publicist for and philosopher of a native North American modernism, 1864-1946),
was included by him in a group show in New York.
In 1917, he gave her a solo exhibition.
In 1918, at Stieglitz’ request, she moved to New York. And to oil on canvas;
and to marry Stieglitz in 1924.
Georgia O’Keefe, 1918, gelatin silver print
Alfred Stieglitz, 1864-1946, American. Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, NM
Stieiglitz mounted solo exhibitions of his wife’s work every year until he died; the 1925 exhibition launched her flower fame.
Georgia O’Keeffe’s work was encumbered for decades by the sexualized interpretation of her work by her husband, nourished by Stieglitz’ exhibition of his photographs of her naked body in the early 1920s.
The notion that suppressed sexuality was at the root of her art became widely diffused when she began to produce her large flower paintings.
Alfred Stieglitz and Georgia O’Keeffe, c. 1939; gelatin silver print
Ansel Adams 1902-1984, American. Philadelphia Museum of Art from its website
This misogyny has worked to hide the aesthetic discipline of O’Keeffe’s art. A discipline which crystalized during the compositional practices set her by Arthur Wesley Dow;
a discipline which set her free to recreate nature – in beauty – on paper or canvas according to her own lights.
********************
In this practice, art is not about representation or abstraction.
It is about creating a harmonious (beautiful) image, drawing out line, colour and the balance of light and dark;
which can speak to the viewer’s senses and which can relay a landscape, emotional or real, with which the viewer can identify.
Red Hills, Lake George, 1927.
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC
O’Keeffe’s husband’s family had a country place in Lake George in New York’s Adirondack mountains.
In her earliest years, the artist’s subject matter was drawn mainly from the natural world. She moved later to portraits, flowers and aerial views.
TBD
Sometimes she abstracted the shape she wanted to represent from a natural form(ation), insisting that the resulting image was not an abstract but something that she had seen.
Another Drawing Similar Shape, 1959, charcoal on paper
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. Milwaukee Art Museum loan to MOMA, NY in 2023
Inspired by an aerial view of a river from a ‘plane on a journey in which the artist travelled around the world.
On the River, 1964, oil on canvas
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe loan to MOMA, NY in 2023
Sometimes her work was a pure abstraction and she named it as such; or used the name “Special Drawing”.
Drawing 18 – Special, 1919, charcoal on paper
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, TX loan to MOMA, NY in 2023
Georgia O’Keeffe said this about the relationship of realism to abstraction:
“Objective (representational) painting is not good painting unless it is good in the abstract sense. A hill or tree cannot make a good painting just because it is a hill or a tree.
Inside the Tent while at U. of Virginia, 1916, oil on canvas.
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, NM loan to MOMA, NY in 2023
“The abstraction is often the most definite form for the intangible thing in myself that I can only clarify in paint.
“It is lines and colors put together so that they say something. For me that is the very basis of painting.”
In the Patio X, 1950, oil on canvas mounted on wood
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. Private collection loan to MOMA, NY in 2023
That is to say there was no bright line between representation and abstraction for her;
and her representational image-making could not do without a first abstraction of the line and colour of the image.
To be transferred onto paper or canvas and built up as economically as possible.
Red Canna, 1923, oil on canvas
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia
Abstract patterns derived from the shape of the canna and depicted with a stripped-down pictorial sensibility and restrained brushwork.
Pink and Green Mountains No. IV, 1917, watercolour on paper
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, NM loan to MOMA in 2023;
This said, there is abstraction which is only abstract and O’Keeffe’s oeuvre contains a number of purely abstract works.
14 – Special, 1916, charcoal on paper
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC loan to MOMA, NY in 2023
Black Abstraction, 1927, oil on canvas.
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY from the web
Abstraction Blue, 1927, oil on canvas.
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. MOMA, NY
And this from much later in her life:
From a Day with Juan, 1977, oil on canvas.
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. MOMA, NY
**************
Giving up watercolour (because, she said, she wanted to be taken seriously), O’Keeffe continued to use pastels after her adoption of oil on canvas. She liked to compare pastel and oil for the vibrancy of their colours and the matte-ness of their textures.
She used commercial pastels and also made her own. Unable to mix pastels, as she could oil paint, she rubbed the pigment into the paper, one colour overlapping another, damaging the flesh of her fingers.
detail of Over Blue, 1918, pastel on paper, as below
She was meticulous about the papers she used, often using rough paper so that she could rub the pastel or charcoal into the surface with her fingers.
detail of the last and largest Evening Star, 1917, below.
This utilized a Japanese fiber paper which absorbed and diffused the watercolours.
Very interested to compare the effect of different media on paper and on canvas, she often painted the same image using different media.
Here are two of the five portraits – 4 charcoal and one pastel – she created of Beauford Delaney.
Beauford Delaney (1901-1979, American active France), pastel on paper, 1943
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. Smithsonian, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC from its website
Beauford Delaney (1901-1979, American active France), charcoal on cream laid paper, 1943
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. Chicago Institute of Art from its website
O’Keefe also varied her colour palette for the same image.
House with Tree – Red, watercolour on paper, 1918
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, NM loan to MOMA, NY in 2023
House with Tree-Green, 1918, watercolour and graphite on paper
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. Georgia O’Keefe Museum, Santa Fe, NM loan to MOMA, NY in 2023
In her long life, Georgia O’Keeffe never joined a movement or a tendency.
This is what she said when she began to find her way in the early teens of the 20th century:
“I realised that I had things in my head not like what I had been taught – not like what I had seen – shapes and ideas so familiar to me that it hadn’t occurred to me to put them down.
I decided to stop painting, to put away everything I had done, and to start to say things that were my own…”
Her individualism cost her institutionally.
Despite widespread public acceptance, love, even cult – of her work, MOMA – our North American guardian of all the modernities – has only 13 of her works: five of these being gifts from the artist or her foundation.
This is their first exhibition of her work in 77 years.
That may speak to why this exhibition was not as well documented as are the exhibitions at MOMA of the European modernists or of the New York School and its successors.
There was no hint at the exhibition of her peers, other modernists, also in Alfred Stieglitz’ circle.
There was no evaluation of her role, even at this early stage, in Stieglitz’ overall goal to establish a modernism grounded in North American soil. (This 40 years before the Abstract Expressionists).
Nor do I recall any mention of the effect of the 1913 Armory Show on her work or Stieglitz’. Young Turks had blown up all definitions of art there.
Not owning (not having chosen, in the past, to own) any of her large flower images, the MOMA borrowed this very large magnificence to illuminate their lobby
Jonquils I, 1936, oil on canvas.
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. Private loan on display at MOMA, NY in 2023
as a pointer to their exhibition;
and as a consolation for the imminent passing of this year’s daffodils just as this exhibition began in April 2023.
*************************
In chronological order, some of the images of this exhibition and some from elsewhere.
Train at Night in the Desert, 1916, charcoal on paper
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. Private collection on loan to MOMA, NY in 2023
Train Coming In, Canyon, TX, 1916, watercolour on paper
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. Amarillo Museum of Art loan to MOMA in 2023
Blue #1, 1916, watercolour and pencil on paper
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. Brooklyn Museum, NY loan to MOMA, NY in 2023
Blue #2; Blue #3, 1916, watercolour on paper
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. Brooklyn Museum, NY loan to MOMA, NY in 2023
Blue, 1916, watercolour on paper.
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. Private loan to MOMA, NY in 2023
No. 8 – Special Drawing, charcoal on paper
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. Loan by the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY to MOMA, NY
Morning Sky with Houses, 1916, watercolour and pencil on paper
Georgia O’Keefe Museum, Santa Fe, NM loan to MOMA, NY in 2023
Sunrise, 1916, watercolour on paper
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. Private loan to MOMA, NY in 2023
Blue Hill No. II, 1916, watercolour on paper.
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, NM loan to MOMA, NY in 2023
Early No. 2, 1915, charcoal on paper
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. Loan from The Menil Collection, Houston, TX to MOMA, NY in 2023
O’Keeffe said she returned again and again, unconsciously, to forms that resemble the scroll of a violin which she learned to play as a child.
No. 12 Special, charcoal on paper, 1916.
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. MOMA, NY
O’Keeffe said she returned again and again, unconsciously, to forms that resemble the scroll of a violin.
Special No. 9, charcoal on paper, 1915
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. The Menil Collection, Houston, TX loan to MOMA, NY
This, O’Keeffe noted to Stieglitz, was her splitting headache.
Red and Blue No. I, 1916, watercolour on paper
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR loan to MOMA, NY in 2023
Hill, Stream, and Moon, 1916-17, watercolour on paper.
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. Private loan to MOMA, NY in 2023
Untitled (Abstraction), 1916-17, charcoal on paper
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC loan to MOMA, NY in 2023
Drawing XIII, 1916-17, charcoal on paper
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
No. 20 – Special, 1916-’17, oil on board
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. Milwaukee Art Museum loan to MOMA, NY in 2023
Portrait – W – No. II, 1917, watercolour on paper
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MI loan to MOMA, NY in 2023
Evening Star series
“The evening star would be high in the sunset sky when it was still broad daylight. That evening star fascinated me.” Georgia O’Keeffe on a visit to Texas.
Evening Star No.V, 1917, watercolour on paper
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX loan to MOMA, NY in 2023
Evening Star #VII, watercolour on paper, 1917
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, NM loan to MOMA, NY in 2023 from its website
Evening Star, No. VI, 1917, watercolour on paper
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, NM loan to MOMA, NY in 2023
Evening Star, No. VIII, 1917, watercolour on paper
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. ?Location
Nude Suite, 1917
Various owners. All but the blue image are self-portraits of Georgia O’Keeffe. All watercolour on paper.
Blue Nude, 1918, watercolour on paper
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska-Lincoln loan to MOMA, NY in 2023
*****************
Over Blue, 1918, pastel on paper
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. Memorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester loan to MOMA, NY in 2023
Music – Pink and Blue No. 1, 1918, oil on canvas
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. Seattle Art Museum loan to MOMA, NY in 2023
Music – Pink and Blue No. 2, 1918, oil on canvas
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. Whitney Museum of American Art, NY
Canna Lily, 1918-20, watercolour on paper
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. Columbus Museum of Art loan to MOMA, NY in 2023
Lake George, Coat and Red, 1919, oil on canvas
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. MOMA, NY
A Storm, 1922, pastel on paper
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
Pool in the Woods, Lake George, 1922, pastel on paper
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. Reynolda House Museum of American Art, affiliated with Wake Forest Museum, Winston Salem, NC loan to MOMA, NY in 2023
Lake George in Woods, 1922, pastel on paper
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine loan to MOMA, NY in 2023
Wave, 1922, ?medium
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. Private loan to MOMA, NY in 2023
Untitled, (New York), 1926, charcoal on paper
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. Fine Art Museums of San Francisco loan to MOMA, NY in 2023
Banana Flower, 1934, charcoal on paper.
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. MOMA, NY
One of several documenting the evolution of the fruit.
Eagle Claw and Bean Necklace, 1934, charcoal on paper
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. MOMA, NY
An Orchid, 1941, pastel on paper mounted on board
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. MOMA, NY
Goat’s Horns II, 1945, charcoal on paper.
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, NM loan to MOMA in 2023
Goat’s Horns with Blue, 1945, pastel on paper
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. Private loan to MOMA, NY in 2023
Untitled (Sacsayhuamán), 1956, pencil on paper.
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. Georgia O’Keeffe Museum loan to MOMA, NY in 2023; from the website of the NY Times
A drawing of the dry stone walls of Sacsayhuamán, the Inca citadel near Cuzco, Peru.
Drawing IX, 1959, charcoal on paper
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe loan to MOMA, NY in 2023
It Was Blue and Green, oil on linen, 1960
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. Whitney Museum of Art, NY loan to MOMA in 2023
Drawing No. I, 1959, charcoal on paper
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. Private collection loan to MOMA, NY in 2023
A drawing based on an aerial view of the artist from a ‘plane ride
It Was Yellow and Pink III, 1960, oil on canvas
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1887-1986, American. The Art Institute of Chicago loan to MOMA in 2023
The artist, who left a legacy of a little more than 800 works, died in New Mexico in 1986.
Napping in the Afternoon Sun, April 1980, 1984.
Myron Wood, 1921-1999, American. From the website of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, NM
Georgia O’Keefe’s mother ran a boarding house in Charlottesville, Virginia. While she was teaching school here before she got married, she took art lessons at the University of Virginia during the summer when women were allowed to take classes at the (then) male only school. The UVA museum had a show of her early works a few years ago. It was quite impressive and showed her talent even then.
Thanks for your comment.
She was very talented and I did read that she was taking art classes from when she was very young. As you may know, she was never trained in Europe and was entirely formed in the US.
All the more our dismay that it is only now that the MOMA has decided to get to grips with her accomplishment!