Our Fall Art History 101 Blog celebrates an iconic artist’s birthday! We’re honoring American modernist painter, Georgia O’Keeffe just in time for her November 15th Birthday. Born in Sun Prairie, WI, this brilliant artist lived a full life before settling in Santa Fe, NM. Oh, and did we mention she lived until the age of 98?! #Goals. We hope you enjoy reading this brief history and viewing Georgia’s stunning paintings. Info courtesy of okeeffemuseum.org and georgiaokeeffe.net. My painting is what I have to give back to the world for what the world gives to me. - Georgia O'Keeffe Share on X One of the most significant artists of the 20th century, Georgia was renowned for her contribution to modern art. The second of seven children, she grew up on a farm near Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. By the time she graduated from high school in 1905, Georgia had determined to make her way as an artist. She studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Students League in New York where she learned the techniques of traditional painting. The direction of her artistic practice shifted dramatically four years later when she studied the revolutionary ideas of Arthur Wesley Dow. Dow offered her an alternative to established ways of thinking about art. She experimented with abstraction for two years while she taught art in West Texas. Through a series of abstract charcoal drawings, she developed a personal language to better express her feelings and ideas. Georgia mailed some of these highly abstract drawings to a friend in New York City. Her friend showed them to Alfred Stieglitz, the art dealer and renowned photographer, who would eventually become O’Keeffe’s husband. He became the first to exhibit her work in 1916. By the mid-1920s, Georgia was recognized as one of America’s most important and successful artists, known for her paintings of New York skyscrapers—an essentially American symbol of modernity—as well as her equally radical depictions of flowers.

In the summer of 1929, Georgia made the first of many trips to northern New Mexico. The stark landscape and Native American and Hispanic cultures of the region inspired a new direction in her art. For the next two decades, she spent most summers living and working in New Mexico. She made the state her permanent home in 1949, three years after Stieglitz’s death. Georgia’s New Mexico paintings coincided with a growing interest in regional scenes by American Modernists seeking a distinctive view of the nation. In the 1950s, she began to travel internationally. She painted and sketched works that evoked the spectacular places she visited, including the mountain peaks of Peru and Japan’s Mount Fuji. At the age of 73, she took on a new subject: aerial views of clouds and sky. Suffering from macular degeneration and failing vision, Georgia painted her last unassisted oil painting in 1972. However, her will to create did not diminish with her eyesight. In 1977, at age 90, she observed, “I can see what I want to paint. The thing that makes you want to create is still there.” Late in life, and almost blind, she enlisted the help of several assistants to enable her to continue creating art. In these works, she drew on favorite motifs from memory and her vivid imagination. Georgia O’Keeffe died in Santa Fe on March 6, 1986, at the age of 98.

As an artist of national standing, Georgia O’Keeffe has been well known in America for many decades. More recently, her art has begun to attract similar attention and accolades abroad. The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum’s collections include nearly 150 paintings and hundreds of works on paper (pencil and charcoal drawings, as well as pastels and watercolors). The collections also include personal property, from rocks and bones to dresses and paintbrushes, and a significant archive of documents and photographs relating to the artist’s life and times. I hope to visit this Museum some day!

Can’t get enough of Georgia? Please enjoy the brief YouTube interview below, courtesy of Art Enigma. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxjyVf5AHsE

We hope you were inspired learning about this masterful artist and her work!

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Art History 101 reviews selected artists from periods of history that continue to influence today’s culture and taste. If you enjoyed this story, please feel free to share on your favorite social media. Comments appreciated! If there is an artist you would like us to feature, please comment below. Thank you for your support! Want first notice on more upcoming cultural events and tours? Subscribe now! For more on Pastimes for a Lifetime’s Art Curriculum, and founder/instructor Linda Wehrli, visit the website. Let’s be Social! Pastimes for a Lifetime on Facebook and Instagram Jessica Lee Sanders on Instagram and Facebook