Tuesday, October 6, 2020

ART 125/FIST 318 Georgia O'Keeffe's Colors

 

Grey Lines with Black, Blue and Yellow, c. 1923, Georgia O’Keeffe.
 

Georgia O'Keeffe titled this work with the names of some of the prominent colors. The title here may become more of a poem than a description, alluding to the colors of a bruise and neglecting that it's largely a shade of lavender. It's a hint that this image may elude to a form of psychic distress, and the colors can take us there. Colors can be the ultimate subject of a painting, as mid-20th century artists who have painted monochromes have shown;

Yves Klein   Untitled Blue Monochrome (IKB 322)  1959
Pigment and synthetic resin on cardboard laid on gauze
8 3/10 × 6 9/10 in

O' Keeffe's paintings are my absolute favorite thing to run across in a museum. Her work often does not translate well in reproduction. It also doesn't really fall into some trend-of-past 'art movement' outside of a very organic form of abstraction.

Ends of Barns   Georgia O' Keeffe   1922

Sometimes it even veers towards a streamlined realism, especially in the more sentimental subjects of landscapes and buildings. But maybe this painting is ultimately more just about 'red' ? O'Keeffe grew up on a Wisconsin dairy farm and quite a few barn paintings appear in her early work. 

 

The sign on the left marks the Georgia O'Keefe childhood home.

 

What's she's best known for of course are her enlarged flowers, her most accessible works.

Jimson Weed, White Flower No. 1 (1936) on view at the Tate Modern

In 2014 her Jimson Weed, White Flower No. 1 (1936) sold for $44.4 million, and O’Keefe became the most highly valued female artist ever.



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