Title: Abstraction. Year: 1926. Poster size: 66 × 44 cm. American museum poster.

Actual artwork with a silver aluminum frame

About the artist / Georgia O'Keeffe

Artist: Georgia O'Keeffe

Georgia Totto O’Keeffe (November 15, 1887–March 6, 1986) was an American artist regarded as one of the great masters of 20th-century art. O’Keeffe’s paintings have become classics of American art of the 1920s. Known for an approach that is part abstract and part realist, she explored distinctive subjects, primarily close-up views of flowers, variations in rock textures, seashells, animal bones, and desolate landscapes of the American interior. Her works are often filled with subtle variations of a single hue, forming rhythmic compositions. At times, the outlines of objects in O’Keeffe’s paintings give viewers a sense of their crispness.

O’Keeffe’s image is familiar to many—as is the mythology surrounding her: an aristocratic, independent woman in the New Mexico desert. Photographs of her radiate the distinctive atmosphere that surrounds them. They insist on the emotional power of simple subjects.

When Georgis O’Keeffe painted flowers, she was, of course, working in a tradition shared by centuries of flower painters. Yet her work is unmistakably different. She celebrates flowers and bouquets, focusing freely on their details. The macro and micro flow together in a new space of color, rhythm, and composition. It is a flower—and also a painting.

O’Keeffe’s photographs are exquisite. Before moving to the canvas, she used sketches and mixed colors endlessly. She wanted to achieve a very specific image. That is why she worked in series, repeating petals, shells, clouds, branches, leaves, and mountains.

For Georgia O’Keeffe, it was all about evoking a feeling. You may not be able to describe that feeling directly, but you can bring it to life through repeated viewing, like a musical theme.

Georgia Totto O’Keeffe (November 15, 1887–March 6, 1986) was an American artist regarded as one of the great masters of 20th-century art. O’Keeffe’s paintings have become classics of American art of the 1920s. Known for an approach that is part abstract and part realist, she explored distinctive subjects, primarily close-up views of flowers, variations in rock textures, seashells, animal bones, and desolate landscapes of the American interior. Her works are often filled with subtle variations of a single hue, forming rhythmic compositions. At times, the outlines of objects in O’Keeffe’s paintings give viewers a sense of their crispness.

O’Keeffe’s image is familiar to many—as is the mythology surrounding her: an aristocratic, independent woman in the New Mexico desert. Photographs of her radiate the distinctive atmosphere that surrounds them. They insist on the emotional power of simple subjects.

When Georgis O’Keeffe painted flowers, she was, of course, working in a tradition shared by centuries of flower painters. Yet her work is unmistakably different. She celebrates flowers and bouquets, focusing freely on their details. The macro and micro flow together in a new space of color, rhythm, and composition. It is a flower—and also a painting.

O’Keeffe’s photographs are exquisite. Before moving to the canvas, she used sketches and mixed colors endlessly. She wanted to achieve a very specific image. That is why she worked in series, repeating petals, shells, clouds, branches, leaves, and mountains.

For Georgia O’Keeffe, it was all about evoking a feeling. You may not be able to describe that feeling directly, but you can bring it to life through repeated viewing, like a musical theme.