Georgia OKeefe (includes annotated bibliography)

Georgia O’Keefe (word count includes annotated bibliography)

Georgia O’Keefe is a famous American painter who painted beautiful flowers and landscapes. But she painted these images in such a way that many people believed she was portraying sexual imagery. “O’Keefe’s depictions of flowers in strict frontality and enlarged to giant scale were entirely original in character . . . the view into the open blossoms evoked an image of the female psyche and invited erotic associations.” (Joachimides 47) O’Keefe denies these allegations and says that she “magnified the scale of the flower only to ensure people would notice them.” (Haskell 203) O’Keefe’s artwork was misinterpreted because of cultural prejudice, her non-traditional lifestyle, and gender bias art criticism. But despite these accusations, Georgia O’Keefe’s artwork was not based on sexuality.

O’Keefe was born on November 15, 1887 in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. Her parents were dairy farmers and throughout her childhood she lived on her family’s farm. Georgia had a rough childhood growing up on the farm. Her mother did not especially like her and when she was not busy ignoring her, she treated her very badly. Although her mother disliked her, Georgia’s father loved her unconditionally and gave her the love her mother deprived her of. But he also molested her, a tramatizing drawback that would follow her for the rest of her life. Although she knew what her father was doing was wrong, she refused to admit this to herself because he was the only loved one she truly had. So, when Georgia’s father left, she was heartbroken (Hogrefe 14). “The abandonment she must have felt when he left the family had repercussions for the rest of her life as she refused to get close to many of her male companions . . .her closest male friends were homosexual . . . and she spurned men who sought sexual intimacy with her.” (15) After her father left, Georgia was sent to live with her aunt who punished her frequently by secluding her in her room and often by slapping Georgia in the face. When she was a teenager she was sent to an all girl’s boarding school. This is where she was finally able to receive art classes and build on her talent. Georgia’s mother did not allow her to be cultured, because it was forever trapped in the ways of the late 1800’s and if you were a lady, it was not worth it (17).

Georgia O’Keefe was brought ...

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...o capture the true essence of a flower you needed to be able to see it up close for a more personal, intimate effect. To examine something as simple as a flower up close, you only then realize the extreme complexity that makes such an inconsequential thing so beautiful.

Robinson, Roxana. Georgia O’Keeffe: A Life. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1989.

This book goes through Georgia’s life in detail. I found a lot of personal quotes in this book that Georgia said about her work and the criticism it received that really caught my eye. She was very opinionated about her art, but at the same time, she could care less about what any art critic had to say about it. Art critics at the time of her career’s peak were predominantly male and this book expresses the fact that male chauvinism was a huge impact on the criticism of her work. This book also goes into the impression her constant change in her surroundings had on her work. Georgia her constant change in her surroundings had on her work. Georgia lived in several different parts of America, Wisconsin, New Mexico, Arizona, California, New York, etc. and with each move, her style change and reflected this new place.