Georgia_O'Keefe

Georgia O'keefe: An Eye for Beauty Georgia O'keefe's works are displayed all over the country, she is often referred to as the most moving and monumental female painter of her time. It is hard to compete with an O'keefe painting, and they are easily recognizable, yet not easily duplicated. She has much emotion behind her paintings and she wanted to world to see the beauty that she saw. There is no one main work of O'keefe's that is easily chosen and spoke about. Because she is so well known, and has literally hundreds of paintings on display everywhere , it is hard to single out just one. The meanings behind all her works were mostly trying to achieve the same goal- for the world to see simple beauty. Her techniques were different than other painters of her time, and through her techniques she gained attention of fans and produced gorgeous paintings for the world to enjoy long after she was gone. “If you take a flower in your hand and really look at it- it is your world for a moment.” (O'keefe, 1931). O'keefe longed to show the beauty of flowers and nature through her paintings. In her earlier days her paintings began with charcoal and a canvas, she claimed she would add color when the work needed color in order to express. Later she began to use flowers, which of course need all their color for expression, and she used them for just that. Georgia was one of the first of her time to blow up, crop and manipulate a picture. She used oil paints on canvas mostly and her most recognized paintings are these, later working with water color. She would zoom in on the flower, using the exact color it was in nature, and trying to zoom into each curve and bend of the flower, showing the flowers close up and when shown so close up, it was hard to ignore the beauty of the flower as well as the painting. “I decided if I could paint that flower in a large scale- you could not ignore it's beauty.” (O'keefe). Georgia wanted people to look deeper into her flowers and really see them for what they are- simple beauty in nature. Nature- was the direct source for all of O'keefe's art. I have included three of Georgia's works, three pictures diverse enough to show her styles. It is easy to see why critics would assume that her flower paintings were sexual or erotic. Some believed that her flowers were a way of showing female dominance and female reproductive organs. She always goes against this accusations, claiming they are false and that her flowers are flowers, simply that. “Well I made you take time to look at what I saw and when you took time to really notice my flower you hung all your own associations of flowers on my flower, and you write about my flower as if I think and see what you think and see- and I don't.” (O'keefe). Black Iris II is not that of a females vulva or genitals, it is a black iris, zoomed into the center, showing the simple beauty of each petal and the way that the petals fold and fall. Her painting of Autumn Leaves are the colors of autumn, and the texture of the fallen leaves are shown by the zoom view. Some say that after a specific flower was in bloom, for example the iris, Georgia would stay locked up for the whole two weeks the flower was blooming and paint it in every stage and every which way. Georgia took her works very seriously and truly was passionate about each painting, for they all portrayed nature, and it would be unlike her completely to show nature in any way but beautiful. If those around O'keefe would have listened to her simple meanings they would stop trying to make something of her paintings when everything one needs to know is right there. Her works were full of beauty and she was the first to zoom up on a simple object, making a painting look abstract, but really upclose it is the edges, surroundings, and the center of many different types of flowers. Many of her works were of New Mexico hills, lakes, and landscapes. These works of the land directly correspond with the land of New Mexico today. Her art holds true to the land and shows what is still there flourishing in the present. In the Georgia O'keefe musuem in New Mexico, her works are proudly displayed for all to see and the landscapes surrounding the outside of the meseum are paralleled to the paintings inside. O'keefe nailed it right on, and her works show nature as a true, pure form, exactly as she intended.