Product Description

For seven decades Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986) was a major figure in American art who, remarkably, maintained her independence from shifting artistic trends. She painted prolifically, and almost exclusively, the flowers, animal bones, and landscapes around her studios in Lake George, New York, and New Mexico, and these subjects became her signature images. Remaining true to her own unique artistic vision, she created a highly individual style of painting that synthesized the formal language of modern European abstraction and the subjects of traditional American pictorialism. Ever popular with American critics and the public since the first years of her career, O'Keeffe's reputation with contemporary audiences has expanded into the international arena. This comprehensive and illuminating new book surveys Georgia O'Keeffe's complete oeuvre—drawings, watercolors, and paintings from all periods—and explains her life in the context of her artistic output. The accessible text provides in-depth analysis of her most important pictures and highlights the recurring themes and images that unite her large body of work. The discussion incorporates current scholarship and benefits from the recent publication of the artist's catalogue raisonné. O'Keeffe's relationships with fellow artists such as Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, John Marin, Paul Strand, and, especially, Alfred Stieglitz are also explored. It was not uncommon for her to adapt to her own artistic purposes specific images, themes, or compositions from other people's work, although her ideas more often paralleled, and sometimes even preceded, those of other artists. Throughout her long and productive life, Georgia O'Keeffe was emphatic in her belief that art could not be explained adequately with words: "Colors & line & shapes seem for me a more definite statement than words." Yet, despite her protestations, candid writings from every period exist in the artist's vast correspondence, and they are quoted here to provide greater understanding of her personality and her thoughts about art. 75 color and 75 b/w illustrations.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #480374 in Books
• Published on: 2001-06-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

About the Author
Lisa Mintz Messinger is Assistant Curator of Modern Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and a noted scholar on Georgia O'Keeffe. Her many publications include an earlier book on O'Keeffe for Thames & Hudson, an essay for the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum's inaugural catalogue, and the exhibition catalogue Abstract Expressionism: Works on Paper, Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Customer Reviews

Meet the real Georgia O'Keeffe!!
This is an unusually perceptive and sensitive view of the life and art of Georgia O'Keeffe. The author not only includes information about the friends of Georgia, but samples of the works that very probably influenced her development as an artist. The photographs of Georgia at various times in her life were a nice addition. I learned more about this wonderfully independent artist from this book than from the other dozens of books that I have read about her. Very readable, and highly recommended.

More is less, a great bio in a small book
This book gives the reader a great outline of O'Keeffe's life. Best of all, the author matches the artist's personal development with her work so that one can travel in O'Keeffe's footsteps and appreciate both her outlook and inner eye.