Georgia O'Keeffe was an America artist born on November 15 1887 and managed to live to be 98. Throughout her life, the society perceived her way of life as one that is totally immoral. She lived a very contentious life that many segregated her. She inadvertently found herself painting the episodes in her life which was depicted in he flowers and many others of her works. Finally, in 1916, O'Keeffe first came into the attention of the New York art community and was able to maintain her independence and resist the artistic trends. Additionally, her works depicted the real distinctive landmarks and a source of inspiration to many artists and people in general in the contemporary world.
She remained true to her imaginative vision and created an extremely individual style of painting. She prolifically and almost solely painted animal bones, flowers and the beautiful landscapes of New York and New Mexico. Meticulously, she was among the few women who deviated from the norm that women should be subjective and dependent on men. She lived as an independent woman making decisions that she felt were necessary and beneficial to her life. She started an affair with Alfred Stieglitz, an art dealer and a pioneer photographer, despite the fact that she was considered to be bisexual and everyone shunned her (Eisler, 31). She had to fight her own battles in the highly chauvinistic male-dominated society. Nevertheless, she devoted herself to achieving her dreams through exercising and acquiring the power of men.
Modernism
The passionate relationship between Alfred Stieglitz, a photographer, and Georgia O'Keeffe were a legendary relationship of two modernism's greatest artists (Stieglitz, 119). She was fascinated by his commanding power and celebrity. The two shared so many things in their lives. They write each other so many voluminous romantic letters in which their idiocies, crazy behaviors, meanness, unerring artistic instincts and amazing talents were displayed.
Her modernism came across when she was married by Stieglitz who was keen on modernism. He was a modernist artist in photographing. O’Keeffe was converted to be a photographic model, who participated in creating works that stimulated emotion and added meaning through conscious used of tone. She became a proponent of modernism since she developed her own distinctive American style and she became an icon that included feature details of plant forms which in future could change bleach bones and New Mexican landscape. Her mission which was to change and improve modernist painting was achieved in America. She is highly recognized for challenging the boundaries of modern America artist style. This makes her an American icon and she became famous in the world of men’s power.
Alfred and O'Keeffe first met in 1916. At that time, Alfred was famous and 52 years old while O'Keeffe was 28 and still not that famous. Alfred was the most important person in the world of art in New York. On the other hand, O'Keeffe was a school teacher in Texas. Their eroticism was frequently articulated in their enormous artistic productions. Their relationship deepened and at one point, O'Keeffe says, "I'm getting to like you so tremendously” (Eisler, 231).Her love towards Alfred was so deep and she had told him everything about herself. She wholeheartedly admits that it was Alfred that knew a lot about her and it therefore followed that she wanted him.
Alfred became her mentor and guide. He went ahead to exhibit her works in his gallery. When O'Keeffe was returning to Texas after visiting him, he writes, “How I wanted to photograph you; the hands; the mouth ” (Stieglitz, 89). Evidently, he was longing for her. He sees her not as an artist but as the woman. He describes her as a kind hearted woman that meant a lot to his life.
They two were entranced passionately in love and married in 1924. O'Keeffe so deeply wanted to have children while Alfred did not. Problems started creeping into their relationship. Despite all odds, O'Keeffe managed to live a happy life. When O'Keeffe was 42 and living in Mexico, she found the flowers that will placed her works in every major museum (Eisler, 91). She had already separated with Alfred who was by then living in New York. When O’Keeffe suffered a nerv9su breakdown, Alfred was frequently seeing Dorothy a young poet and went ahead to photograph her in the same places where he used to take O’Keeffe for a good time. Alfred admits that he was ‘broken’ after losing her and he will never get her again.
Despite everything that had happened in their lives, O'Keeffe did not want to blame Alfred. She tells him that he should not have any regrets. She states that Alfred felt that she was mistaken in many things. She was still very grateful for all that Alfred had done to her. Through him, he had learnt many things about other people. He had left her heart in a usable form. She altogether created a different perception of men.
O'Keeffe wanted to move forward. Through a letter dated 9th July 1929, she hoped that Alfred was not upset by the breakup since it was the only option that she could have taken. She knew that Alfred will not love her for that but apparently the letter expressed what any modern woman feels. With the changes, variations, infidelity and letters, the marriage brought a new awakening to O'Keeffe (Eisler, 117). They were all looking for personal as well as professional fulfillment and were able to achieve so much. It however, seems that the two individuals were not compatible. Unfortunately, Alfred died in 1946 and O'Keeffe still felt having lost a person that she treasured.
Georgia decided to settle in New Mexico because of the beautiful natural environment and a vibrant landscape which attracted her. The Wilderness of New Mexico never interfered with her strong desire for artwork. She always held her spirit high to be in a position to connect between the world around her and skills in her artistry. She ensured that the room for exploration gave her a chance to set a high pace in her artwork and artistry during her times in New Mexico. When at Mexico, she interacted with Tony, Mabel Luhan’s husband and leant much about the cultural practices of people with Navajo accent.
Her paintings in the Catholic Church reflected the landscape of New Mexican. She had the ability to come with paintings which reflected different paintings. Most of the Clandestine Catholic churches portrayed the large wooden crosses that were had been developed by her. The power of Georgia to uniquely observe the New Mexican landscape helped her to appear more equal in the world that was dominated by male chauvinism and the females were looked down upon. She came up with the Black Cross painting which developed to become more popular with the Catholic Church.
She went further to paint animal bones and they reflected images of death. The bones were painted to appear scattered in the desert and they were placed in juxtapositions. The artist was attracted to objects which were associated with spiritual faith and the human emotions. Since she was fascinated with mission churches, she developed a very appealing abstraction of the Ranchos church. In this painting, Georgia mainly focused on colors and textures of the church but he did not incorporate any of her experiences in life. Despite most of her images representing at least an aspect of life, she used colors as a very unique technique to attain abstraction. Georgia developed a distinct technique of looking at lifeless objects and the isolated landscapes (Lisle, Laurie, & Conlin, 89).
O’Keeffe did not interpret any of her works but she instilled a sense of life to the desert. She concentrated more on relating her paintings with the desert and this helped her to develop a lot of ideas. She was not specific to a particular subject but her works generally reflected the American Modernism Movement. During her moments in New Mexico her work varied to reflect either abstraction or symbolism land she never connected people interpretations to her artwork.
O’Keeffe spent precious moments in New Mexico and really enjoyed spending her times here. Despite staying in New Mexico, she ensured that she went to visit Stieglitz annually. She was awarded with an honor to paint a Mural in a music hall but it was unfortunate that the ceiling was not positioned to support her canvasses. During her stay in New Mexico, she experienced a nervous breakdown and this made her spend two months at the hospital( O'Keeffe 34). During her life in New Mexico, she solicited for resources so that she could own a Ghost Ranch. Even after the death of Stieglitz, she remained focused to continue with her paintings. The essence of creative vitality was reflected with her unique styles in paintings and this promoted her artistry all over New Mexico.
Just like any other child Georgia O’Keeffe was highly recognized while she was growing in her world of art. She is known to be among few women who forged their own paths despite of her hardships such as her allure to femininity and her unconventionality that people associated her with. She grew up in Wisconsin and develops artistic talent while she was young though she had some forces that were pulling her down. However her teachers stand firm to encourage her to achieve and pursuing in her dreams (Hassrick, Lisa, Barbara & Barbara, 27).
Soon after, Georgia decided to quit art due to many setbacks and hardship she was encountering. However, after four years later she took a class that rejuvenated her torpor. Her teachers expressed their feelings through the beauty of her art which later propelled O’Keeffe to outstandingly and prolific significant of art career. Another person who inspired her was Alfred Stieglitz who was her art supporter and future husband. Alfred Stieglitz was greatly impressed and thumbs-up with Georgia’s work. All this inspiration made her successful artist when it was hardly to find a woman having a career outside of the home.
Georgia O’ Keefe turned her devotion to presentational painting. She used flowers as subjected matter to express her life. The flowers presented the sexual composition of the flower in sharp focus. In her drawing she tried to bring up a contradiction of the critical notion that her subjected matter was related exclusively to her gender (Hassrick, Lisa, Barbara, & Barbara, 29). However the interpretation was contradicting since critics missed O’ Keefe’s point. But in her painting she used erotic flowers that represented male and female therefore she was ending up in expressing her sexuality. Majority said that she was bisexual and in her painting she represented her sexual gender.
Georgia O’ Keefe, Erotic Flowers was a symbolism in her life. As erotic flower grows underground, it expects for a fleshy flower that arises above ground and emits a scent that attract its natural pollinators. The same way applies to the life of Georgia O’ Keefe who emerges from far background and later become most celebrated for her landscape and still-life paintings. As erotic flowers attract its pollinators Georgia O’ Keefe had a goal to find her inner essence of her abstract subjects.
This was her own quoted definition of erotic flowers, as she was warning those who were misinterpreting her meaning in painting. She said, “I made you take time to look at what I saw and when you took time to really notice my flowers you hung all your own associations with flowers on my flower and you write about my flower as if I think and see what you think and see of the flower and I don’t” (Hassrick, Lisa, Barbara, & Barbara, 34) the erotic flowers symbolized her life with Stieglitz who left his wife and family for Georgia. Alfred Stieglitz acts as her back bone in her painting and helped create the myth around her art work.
O’Keefe loved her affair with Alfred and mostly the environmental conditions of Mexico just like erotic loves their growing habitat. As she describes her affair with Mexico she said the air, landscape and sky were lovely. She portrayed her love as she went home to bury Alfred with his hands. In short her legend has lived on. She overcame the men’s power as she was valued as a woman in a world dominated by men. Her achievement in the world of men was a breakthrough that challenged the notion that women must be dependent on men. She fought a good fight to unshackle thousands of women who were or are still chained under such retrogressive societal norms.
Works Cited
Eisler, Benita. O'keeffe and Stieglitz: An American Romance. New York: Doubleday, 1991. Print.
Hassrick, Peter H, Lisa M. Messinger, Barbara Novak, and Barbara Rose. The Georgia O'keeffe Museum. New York: Harry N. Abrams in association with the Georgia O'Keefe Museum, 1997. Print.
Lisle, Laurie, and Grace Conlin. Portrait of an Artist: A Biography of Georgia O'keeffe. Ashland, or: Blackstone Audio Books, 2006. Internet resource
O'Keeffe, Georgia, and Nicholas Callaway. Georgia O'keeffe: One Hundred Flowers. New York: Knopf in association with Callaway Editions, 1987. Print
Stieglitz, Alfred. Georgia O'keeffe, a Portrait. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1978. Print.
