Lake George Reflection (circa 1921) via Wikimedia Commons
What comes to mind when you think of Georgia O’Keeffe?
Bleached skulls in the desert?
Aerial views of clouds, almost cartoonish in their puffiness?
Voluptuous flowers (freighted with an erotic charge the artist may not have intended)?
Probably not Polaroid prints of a dark haired pet chow sprawled on flagstones…
Or watercolor sketches of demurely pretty ladies…
Or a massive cast iron abstraction…
If your knowledge of America’s most celebrated female artists is confined to the gift shop’s greatest hits, you might enjoy a leisurely prowl through the 1100+ works in the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum’s digital collection.
A main objective of this beta release is to provide a more complete understanding of the life and work of the iconic artist, who died in 1986 at the age of 98.
Her evolution is evident when you search by materials or date.
You can also view works by other artists in the collection, including two very significant men in her life, photographer Alfred Stieglitz and ceramicist Juan Hamilton.
Each item’s listing is enhanced with information on inscriptions and exhibitions, as well as links to other works produced in the same year.
If your explorations leave you in a creative mood, the museum’s website has devised a host of O’Keeffe-inspired, all-ages creative assignments, such as an advertising challenge stemming from her 1939 trip to Hawaii to design promotional images for the Hawaiian Pineapple Company (now known as Dole).
Visit the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum’s online collection here. And watch a documentary introduction to O’Keeffee, narrated by Gene Hackman, below:
Related Content:
The Real Georgia O’Keeffe: The Artist Reveals Herself in Vintage Documentary Clips
Georgia O’Keeffe: A Life in Art, a Short Documentary on the Painter Narrated by Gene Hackman
How Georgia O’Keeffe Became Georgia O’Keeffe: An Animated Video Tells the Story
Ayun Halliday is an author, illustrator, theater maker and Chief Primatologist of the East Village Inky zine. Follow her @AyunHalliday.
A treasure trove of Americana from Georgia O’Keefe!
I would like to see this.
Taking art and I liked her work and now I’m doing my written report on her technic. I like to know more about her than the usual reports. Birth death and schools. Thank you
I would do like this artwork . Thanks dear
How about that influence Kandinsky had on her?
Wassily Kandinsky’s major modern art treatise, On the Spiritual in Art (1911)-Very worthwhile read!
I have studied her life and art since the 1970’s. My favorite memory is the interview she allowed in New Mexico. She answered her door at ‘Ghost Ranch’. There stood several reporters pushing microphones in her face. One question, ‘what do you think about YOU being named as the top female artist. Her reply, ‘i am NOT a female artist…I am an ARTIST’