Born in an era when women were not expected to become artists, Wisconsin native Georgia O’Keeffe broke the mould with her flowery art and her dedication to the American Southwest, which she captured beautifully on her canvases.
Best known for her large paintings of flowers, her repertoire also includes a rich abundance of desert inspired themes of mountain ranges, adobe shacks, and a number of surrealistic shapes that have captivated people for years.
Born in 1887, Sun Prairie native O’Keeffe had the calling to become an artist from childhood, going on to study at Chicago’s Art Institute, and then resuming in 1907 after she had to leave there due to contracting typhoid, finishing her studies at New York’s Art Student League.
On graduation she went to Amarillo, Texas in 1914 to take up a teaching position, later completing her teaching training at Columbia Teacher’s College in New York, and taking up a teaching job in South Carolina at Columbia College on graduation.
Early recognition of her work came from Alfred Steiglitz, renowned curator of New York’s 291 Gallery, after O’Keeffe’s friend Anita Pollitzer took some of her work to show him. O’Keeffe later married the 54 year old Steiglitz when she was only 23 … a marriage that was never firm.
Inspired by the Adirondacks where she and Steiglitz travelled, O’Keeffe also drew inspiration for the views from their hotel in New York where they lived, where her large painting of flowers emerged.
Falling in love with Taos, New Mexico after going there on a trip with friend Beck Strand, O’Keeffe eventually moved there on Steiglitz’s death in 1946, remaining there and eventually Santa Fe for the rest of her life until her death at age 98 in 1986.
