The Fearless Mother of American Modernism

 Guest Post by Kate Jakubowski

“I’ve been absolutely terrified every moment of my life—and I’ve never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do.”[1] From the time she was ten years old, Georgia O’Keeffe knew exactly what she wanted to do—become an artist.[2] Born in 1887 in the small town of Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, Georgia O’Keeffe became one of the most successful female artists of all time: she currently holds the record for most expensive painting sold by a woman at $44.4 million.[3] Whereas we consider Renaissance artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo as geniuses who transcended their time, we often overlook American artists, and more importantly, female artists, as geniuses too. Georgia O’Keeffe was one of the most brilliant artists of the century—a multifaceted, independent individual who pioneered American modernism and influenced generations to come.

The second oldest of seven siblings, and the oldest of five girls, O’Keeffe felt a sense of power from the time she was young. With female role models all around her, including her mother and aunt, Georgia subverted expectations of the submissiveness of women in the Victorian Era by claiming an “aura of natural authority.”[4] This established her sense of individualism right away, as well as her singular focus on the thing she loved the most: art. She did not find public school in Sun Prairie challenging, and in college, she received near-failing grades on any other subject outside of art. Her individuality and tireless dedication to her material craft was distinctly American; as she aptly summarized herself, “I know now that most people are so closely concerned with themselves that they are not aware of their own individuality. I can see myself, and it has helped me to say what I want to say—in paint.”[5]

But it wasn’t just painting—it was innovation. During her time at Columbia Teachers College, O’Keeffe experimented with watercolors, oil, and even a series of charcoal drawings that helped her “declare her stylistic independence.”[6] At Teachers College she met fellow artist Anita Pollitzer, with whom she would become fast friends. Pollitzer sent O’Keeffe’s charcoal drawings to photographer Alfred Stieglitz, and one of the more bizarre relationships in the art world was born. It wasn’t until after Stieglitz had exhibited O’Keeffe’s paintings—without her knowledge—at his 291 gallery in New York that they met. Their relationship was both professional and personal—he became her patron and her husband—and despite their 24-year age difference, they married in 1924 and stayed together until Stieglitz’s death in 1946.

Portrait of O'Keeffe by Alfred Stieglitz

But their marriage took a toll on O’Keeffe in a personal manner; Alfred’s objections to having children took precedence over O’Keeffe’s wish to have them, and he exploited their romantic relationship for profit by exhibiting nude photographs he took of her.[7] But despite Stieglitz’s ego often getting in the way of their private life, O’Keeffe refused to let him take precedence over her greatest passion: her art. She refused to change her last name to his, as that would symbolize a “denial of her professional independence.”[8] Though he may have been her patron, that didn’t mean he could control what she painted. Her art was her one true escape from her personal life and a way to maintain her independence.

O’Keeffe’s passion for painting led to her falling in love all over again, except this time, it was with a place and not a person; the place was New Mexico. In 1917, O’Keeffe took her first trip to the state, and after Stieglitz’s death in 1949, it became her permanent home—as well as her new muse.[9] She found inspiration in the spacious desert landscape, and some of her most hauntingly beautiful work comes from this period of her life—a time of turmoil after the death of her husband, but also a time of clarity as she reclaimed her own identity. As Georgia O’Keeffe said herself, “When I got to New Mexico, that was mine. As soon as I saw it, that was my country. I’d never seen anything like it before, but it fitted to me exactly.”[10] This makes sense, in context—New Mexico is spacious, an open desert that provided independence O’Keeffe had craved her whole life. As Roxana Robinson explains, “The sense of limitlessness offered her liberation. It allowed her sense of self to expand infinitely, independent yet attached to something larger than the self.”[11]

Blue 4 by Georgia O'Keeffe

Though Georgia O’Keeffe may be most well-known for her close-up paintings of flowers, her work is far more expansive. She effortlessly switched between painting more abstract works, such as Music, Pink and Blue No. 2, which visualizes what music sounded like to O’Keeffe; and more surreal works, such as Ram’s Head, White Hollyhock Hills, which depicts a ram’s skull floating above a mountainous landscape. In the former, the colors are bright, and shapes fluid and flowing right into one another; in the latter, the colors are muted, and the shapes jagged, with the skull seemingly popping out from the canvas itself.

O’Keeffe’s versatility can be explained by her incredible ability to recall images with precise detail. “[O'Keeffe] remembered sitting as an infant on a quilt, surrounded by big white pillows...Her visual memory is astonishing, particularly since the episode probably took place when she was six or seven months old.”[12] O’Keeffe thought of the world in visual terms, even going as far as describing people by their physical appearances when writing letters rather than using their names.[13] This translated into her paintings, which are devoid of any human presence; she stripped away distracting details, leaving us with the importance of recognizing the beauty and peace that nature has to offer. Within her unique style of painting, Georgia pioneered a new genre: American modernism. Her refusal to paint in a pre-existing category and insistence on painting things her way is yet another example of her fearlessness and confidence in her own voice.

Another unique aspect of O’Keeffe’s paintings was her refusal to categorize them as exclusively for a female audience. Though many of her paintings allude to female imagery with flowers shaped like female anatomy, O’Keeffe wanted her art to transcend the notion of gender. As she declared herself, “Men liked to put me down as the best woman painter. I think I’m one of the best painters.”[14] Georgia O’Keeffe was a painter who happened to be a woman, not a woman who was a painter. Our notion of who genius can be is often impacted when we consider if they are male or female. Women have borne the brunt of systemic oppression for centuries, especially in the art world; as Linda Nochlin

Lake George Reflection by Georgia O'Keeffe

explains in her ground-breaking feminist art essay “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?,” “The answer [...] lie not in the nature of individual genius or the lack of it, but in the nature of given social institutions and what they forbid or encourage in various classes or groups of individuals.”[15] Yet Georgia O’Keeffe should be considered a great artist, not just a great woman artist, because of the way she transcended almost every aspect of her craft: she refused to put a label on any of it, gender or genre, claiming that it was distinctly her own. Her voice and her stunning visual lexicon shine through each painting; there is no other painter quite like Georgia O’Keeffe.

Though Georgia O’Keeffe died in 1986, her legacy still lives on today. Her artwork is exhibited all around the world, and nearly every town she lived in from Sun Prairie, Wisconsin to Abiquiú, New Mexico, bears some kind of tribute to honor her incredible impact. Though O’Keeffe claimed to have been terrified of “every moment” in her life, author Roxana Robinson would disagree: "Georgia’s enormously powerful imaginative capabilities resulted in a great capacity for fear of every sort. It was her ‘kind of nerve,’ her ability to transcend her fears, of all sorts, that marked her.”[16] Georgia O’Keeffe was a singular voice, a woman whose independence and artistic autonomy were crucial to maintaining her own image. Her sense of self is distinctly American. Her refusal to adhere to traditional power structures defied expectations—but with her unique style art, she defied expectations her entire life. In her own words, “To create one's world in any of the arts takes courage.”[17] Georgia O’Keeffe knew what she wanted from birth—to become an artist—and that’s exactly what she did.

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[1] “10 Amazing Quotes by Georgia O’Keeffe on Her Birthday,” Artnet News, November 15, 2016.

[2] Norma J. Roberts, The American Collections: Columbus Museum of Art (New York: Abrams, 1988), 76.

[3] “The 15 Most Expensive Female Artists,” Bbys Magazine, Barnebys.com, June 10, 2020.

[4] Roxana Robinson, Georgia O’Keeffe: A Life (Hanover: University Press of New England, 1989), 43.

[5] Anna Robertson, “10 Quotes from Georgia O’Keeffe,” Denver Art Museum, August 9, 2022.

[6] Roberts, The American Collections, 76.

[7] Benita Eisler, O’Keeffe & Stieglitz: An American Romance (New York: Doubleday, 1991), 237.

[8] Robinson, Georgia O’Keeffe, 275.

[9] “Timeline,” Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, accessed February 8, 2023.

[10] “My Faraway Nearby: Georgia O’Keeffe in Her Own Words,” Tate, June 25, 2019.

[11] Robinson, Georgia O’Keeffe, 361.

[12] Robinson, Georgia O’Keeffe, 27.

[13] Robinson, Georgia O’Keeffe, 150.

[14] “Georgia O’Keeffe Quotes,” Quotefancy, accessed January 11, 2023.

[15] Linda Nochlin, “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?” 50^th Anniversary Edition,” (London: Thames and Hudson, 2021), 42.

[16] Robinson, Georgia O’Keeffe, 166.

[17] “10 Amazing Quotes."