Georgia O’Keeffe · Spring

Georgia O’Keeffe (American, 1887-1986). 1922. Oil on canvas, 90.2 x 77.2 cm (35.5 x 30.4 in). Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Georgia O’Keeffe is one of the most original American artists of the early twentieth century. Born in Wisconsin, in 1918 she moved to New York to live with her partner, the photographer Alfred Stieglitz. There she came into contact with the artists from the circle of Stieglitz, such as Arthur Dove or Edward Steichen. Then she became one of the first modern artists to represent the landscape of the American Southwest. Just like Suffolk is sometimes called the “Constable country”, northern New Mexico is known as “O’Keeffe country”.

Between 1915 and 1930, O’Keeffe created a very personal style of abstract painting, without entirely abandoning figuration. Abstraction was for O’Keeffe “the most definite form for the intangible thing in myself that I can only clarify in paint”, she wrote in 1976. However, tired of reading some interpretations of her abstract works, she occasionally returned to a more figurative style.

“Spring” is a great example of her style, halfway between abstraction and representation. In 1922 Georgia O’Keeffe was already a well-respected figure in the American art scene, to the point that her husband, Alfred Stieglitz, tried to sell 6 of her paintings for $25,000, then a record for a group of paintings by a living American artist.

G. Fernández – theartwolf.com

Georgia O’Keeffe in 1918