Georgia O’Keefe
1887-1986

One of the most famous female artists of her time.
By age 10, she knew she wanted to be an artist

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• Arthur Wesley Dow taught Georgia O’Keefe in NYC
• His approach to art influenced her- he painted his subjects freely and expressively.

Alfred Stieglitz- husband

• Met in 1916
• He was an internationally known photographer
• He ran the most important gallery in NYC
• She was unknown- an art teacher in TX

• One her first works to be exhibited
• Her relationship with
Stieglitz helps her career.

• She moves to NYC 1918
• When in NYC, O’Keefe painted architecture

• They marry in 1924
• BY late 1920s- O’Keefe feels her art is stifled.
• They live with his family and spend summers with them which intrudes on her painting.

• 1929- she takes her own summer trip to
New Mexico
• She paints and falls in love with the landscape

• “Mabel's place beats anything you can imagine about it — it is simply astonishing," O'Keeffe writes. "... The drive up here
— seventy-five miles — was wonderful — It is bedtime and I am not a bit sleepy — not even tired — I lay in the sun a long time this afternoon — the air is cold and the wind — but the sun is hot — "

My Backyard
Georgia O’Keefe, My Backyard, 1937. Oil on Canvas

My Backyard
Describe:
What style or styles is the work done in?
List the nature forms you see.
Are they true to life? Why or
Why not?
Does the space appear flat, shallow, or deep?
Where do you see warm, cool, and contrasting colors?

My Backyard
Describe:
Style combines representational and abstraction
Forms include rock cliff formations cut from erosion, foreground includes red and blue green patches of ground and green tree shapes
Space appears shallow and compressed in horizontal bands
Green Trees contrast with the red browns.
Value contrasts are in the rock formations.

My Backyard
Analyze
How does the space differ from traditional perspective?
Is there a face in the mountains?

My Backyard
Interpret
What do you think was most important to the artist?
What feelings or moods do you identify with the painting?
Explore a simile or metaphor to help clarify what this artwork says to you
Ex. Eroded forms dance across the cliff wall.
E.x. The cliff rises from the desert floor like a sleeping giant.

My Backyard
Evaluate
How well did she achieve her goal in term of art philosophies
(Expressiveness)?
How original is the artist’s presentation of a landscape?
Consider space, color, forms, and combination of representation and abstraction
Does the work interest you or draw your attention?