Georgia O'Keeffe History
Georgia O'Keeffe is often regarded as the greatest American female artist of the 20th century. Her work is distinguished by an almost erotic rendering of the landscape of her adopted home state of New Mexico. Vibrant colors, dazzling patterns and clarity of subject of matter are the hallmarks of an O'Keefe painting. The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico exhibits more of her work than any other museum in the world.
Childhood
Georgia O'Keeffe was born on November 15, 1887 in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. She immediately had one older sibling and would eventually have five younger siblings. According to O'Keeffe, she had decided by the time she was 10 years old that she wanted to be a painter and received weekly instruction in the art for the next two years.
Education
Georgia O'Keeffe attended the renowned Art Institute of Chicago during the 1905 to 1906 school year but her training was disrupted when she contracted typhoid fever. She was back in the classroom during the 1907 to 1908 school year when she attended the Art Students' League in New York. After winning the Chase Stiff Life Prize, she was able to attend the League Outdoor School at Lake George, New York in 1908.
Commercial Art
In 1908, O'Keeffe suddenly abandoned her dream of becoming a fine artist and returned to Chicago to pursue a career as a commercial artist. She landed a job drawing the lace and embroidery for advertisements. Eventually she had to give up this job when her eyesight began to fail as a result of contracting the measles. After visiting an art class being held at the University of Virginia, O'Keeffe's ambitions were revitalized, and she accepted a position at Supervisor of Arts in Public School in Amarillo, Texas.
Epiphany
After various other teaching positions across the country, O'Keeffe experience an epiphany that forever changed her life. While teaching at Columbia College in South Carolina, O'Keeffe experienced the revelation that everything she'd learned about painting to that point had been of precious little value. She decided it was time to go back to the learning process and focus on simplicity. She began with charcoal drawings done only in back and white and when she had produced enough, she sent them off to a friend in New York with the instructions that they were not to be shown to anyone.
Alfred Stieglitz
O'Keeffe's friend disobeyed and showed the bundle of collected art to the most famous photographer in America at the time: Alfred Stieglitz. Stieglitz was so taken with O'Keeffe's work that he put them on display without her knowledge or consent. Shortly afterward she first visited New Mexico and fell in love with the landscape that would make her famous. All the while she was being mentored by Stieglitz, and the two eventually fell in love and married.
Popularity
Unlike many other abstract artists in the 1920s, George O'Keeffe faced very little resistance and quickly rose to fame. This was in great part because Alfred Stieglitz managed her and mounted an annual exhibition of her work every year from 1926 through 1946. With her art constantly in the public consciousness, O'Keeffe experienced consistent sales and respect even from art critics normally resistant to more abstract painting.
Death
Following the death her husband, O'Keeffe retired to New Mexico permanently and occasionally traveled abroad. The last years of her life were controversial, as there were accusations that her much younger companion, Juan Hamilton, exerted undue influence over her while keeping her older friends away from her. In 1984, she moved to Santa Fe to live with Hamilton and his family. Georgia O'Keeffe died in 1986.
