Georgia O'Keeffe
- American modernism
O'Keeffe's flower paintings are not about what people think they are about. She said this repeatedly, for decades, and nobody listened. 'When people read erotic symbols into my paintings, they are really talking about their own affairs,' she told one interviewer. She painted flowers large because she wanted people to actually look at them, the way you might if you got close enough that a single petal filled your entire field of vision. That was all.
Biography
She grew up on a dairy farm in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, and decided to become an artist at twelve. She studied in Chicago and New York, learning academic technique that bored her. Then she encountered the teaching of Arthur Wesley Dow, who rejected European tradition in favour of composition, colour, and design as ends in themselves. Dow's ideas, drawn partly from Japanese art, gave O'Keeffe permission to paint abstractly. Her charcoal abstractions from 1915[7] are among the earliest abstract works by any American[7] artist.
Alfred Stieglitz exhibited those charcoals without her permission. She was furious. Then she married him. They wrote 25,000 pages of letters to each other. He photographed her obsessively: over 300 portraits across twenty years. The marriage was complicated; he had a long affair with a younger woman, and O'Keeffe began spending more time in New Mexico.
New Mexico became the work. The desert, the bones, the adobe churches, the sky. She built a painting studio in the back seat of a Model A Ford by removing the driver's seat, turning the passenger seat to face backwards, and using the back seat as an easel. She painted from inside the car. The skull paintings came from bones she collected on walks and shipped back to New York in barrels.
She lived to ninety-eight and painted until her eyesight failed in her mid-eighties. Her last unassisted painting was made at eighty-four.
Timeline
- 1887Born on a dairy farm near Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, the second of seven children.
- 1905At 18, enrolled at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, studying under John Vanderpoel.
- 1916At 29, her charcoal abstractions were exhibited at Alfred Stieglitz's 291 gallery in New York without her prior knowledge.
- 1924At 37, married photographer Alfred Stieglitz in Cliffside Park, New Jersey, after his divorce was finalised.
- 1929At 42, made her first trip to northern New Mexico, where the stark desert landscape would transform her artistic direction.
- 1949At 62, moved permanently to Abiquiu, New Mexico, three years after Stieglitz's death, settling at Ghost Ranch.
- 1972At 84, painted her last unassisted oil painting as macular degeneration caused her eyesight to fail.
- 1986Died aged 98 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, recognised as the Mother of American Modernism.
Notable Works
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Where to See Georgia O'Keeffe
30 museums worldwide.
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49 worksNational Gallery of Art
Washington D.C., United States
Mon–Sat 10:00–17:00, Sun 11:00–18:00 · Free
Washington's National Gallery of Art received the Alfred Stieglitz Collection in 1949, a gift arranged by O'Keeffe herself after her husband's death. Its 31 O'Keeffes sit alongside the photographs Stieglitz took of her, letting visitors read painter and sitter as a single archive.
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26 worksMetropolitan Museum of Art
New York City, United States
Sun–Tue, Thu 10:00–17:00; Fri–Sat 10:00–21:00; closed Wed · Adults $30, students $17 (pay-what-you-wish for NY residents)
The Met's 26 O'Keeffes span her New York skyscraper years through to her New Mexico desert work. A Storm (1922) catches Lake George under a bruised night sky, while Black Iris (1926) is the close-cropped flower study that drew early Freudian readings she spent decades rejecting.
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19 worksArt Institute of Chicago
Chicago, United States
Mon 11:00-17:00, Tue closed, Wed 11:00-17:00, Thu 11:00-20:00, Fri-Sun 11:00-17:00 · $32 adults (Chicago/Illinois residents less; under 14 free)
The Art Institute of Chicago bought Blue and Green Music (1919) as part of its 19 O'Keeffes. It belongs to the abstract sequence she painted while teaching in Texas, translating musical phrases into wave forms before the flowers and bones that came to define her.
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17 worksMuseum of Fine Arts Boston
Boston, United States
Sun-Mon 10:00-17:00, Tue closed, Wed 10:00-17:00, Thu-Fri 10:00-22:00, Sat 10:00-17:00
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10 worksWhitney Museum of American Art
New York City, United States
Mon-Thu 10:30-18:00, Fri-Sat 10:30-22:00, Sun 10:30-18:00 · $30
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Georgia O'Keeffe prints
Hand-finished archival prints from Georgia O'Keeffe's body of work.
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See all Georgia O'Keeffe prints →Frequently Asked Questions
Did georgia o'keeffe have children?
Georgia O'Keeffe did not have children, but she loved the company of her Siamese cats and chow dogs.Did georgia o'keeffe use watercolor?
Georgia O'Keeffe used watercolour and graphite on paper to create "Blue Lines X".Georgia o'keeffe art movement/style?
Georgia O'Keeffe took the natural world and applied what she learned from Arthur Wesley Dow.Georgia o'keeffe famous painting?
Georgia O'Keeffe painted over 200 flower paintings, and the calla lily became a regular subject for her.How did georgia o'keeffe became famous?
Georgia O'Keeffe became famous after she began painting large canvases of brightly coloured flowers. These paintings were clear and precise, and no one had ever painted huge flowers like these before.How did georgia o'keeffe die?
Georgia O'Keeffe died in 1986[7] at the age of 99.Is georgia o'keeffe still alive?
No, Georgia O'Keeffe died in 1986[7].Was georgia o'keeffe married?
Georgia O'Keeffe married photographer Alfred Stieglitz in 1924[7]. From the time of her marriage, she began producing magnified still lifes of flowers.When did georgia o'keeffe start painting?
Georgia O'Keeffe began producing magnified still lifes of flowers after her marriage.Where can i see georgia o'keeffe paintings?
Georgia O'Keeffe's works can be seen at National Gallery of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Art Institute of Chicago, and 2 other museums worldwide.Why did georgia o'keeffe move to new mexico?
Georgia O'Keeffe began spending her summers in New Mexico. She first visited Abiquiú in 1931[7], and in 1934 she heard of Ghost Ranch.Why did georgia o'keeffe paint flowers?
Georgia O'Keeffe began painting large flowers because she thought it would provide a unique perspective on a familiar object. She also thought that it would make New York take notice of her work. She started painting them in a large format in 1924[7], about a year after she decided to make imagery she believed would not be misinterpreted.
Sources
Editorial draws on the following primary and tertiary references for Georgia O'Keeffe.
- [1] museum Milwaukee Art Museum Used for: museum holdings.
- [2] museum Brooklyn Museum Used for: museum holdings.
- [3] museum Toledo Museum of Art Used for: museum holdings.
- [4] museum Buffalo AKG Art Museum Used for: museum holdings.
- [5] museum San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Used for: museum holdings.
- [6] museum New Britain Museum of American Art Used for: museum holdings.
- [7] wikipedia Wikipedia: Georgia O'Keeffe Used for: biography, birth dates, death dates, identifiers, movement attribution, nationality.
- [8] book Dorling Kindersley, Artists: Inspiring Stories of the World's Most Creative Minds Used for: biography.
- [9] book Beard, Lee, 1973- author, Butler, Adam, author; Van Cleave, Claire, author; Fortenberry, Diane, author; Stirling, Susan, author, Beard, Lee, 1973- author, Butler, Adam, author; Van Cleave, Claire, author; Fortenberry, Diane, author; Stirling, Susan, author - The Art Book_ New Edition, Mini Format Used for: biography.
Editorial overseen by Solis Prints. Sources verified 2026-07-15. Click a source for details, or hover over [N] in the page above to preview.
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