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_Georgia O'Keeffe _
By: Ryoko Mizuno
Georgia O'Keeffe Georgia Totto O'Keeffe was born in the year on November 15,
1887. She was one of seven children and spent most of her childhood on a farm,
with the typical farm animals and rolling hills. O'Keeffe's aunt, not her
mother, was mostly responsible for raising her. O'Keeffe did not care much for
her aunt, she once referred to her as, "the headache of my life." She did,
however, have some admiration for her aunt's strict and self disciplined
character. O'Keeffe was given her own room and less responsibility. The
younger sisters had to do more chores and share close living conditions. A
younger sister stated that O'Keeffe always wanted things her way, and if she
didn't get them her way, "she'd raise the devil." It was found through family
and friends that O'Keeffe was like this throughout much of her life. O'Keeffe
began her training early with private art lessons at home. The foundation of
her future as an artist was made. When O'Keeffe was in the eighth grade she
asked a daughter of a farm employee what she was going to do when she grew up.
The girl said she didn't know. O'Keeffe replied very definitely, "...I am
going to be an artist!"--"I don't really know where I got my artist idea...I
only know that by that time it was definitely settled in my mind." She entered
the Sacred Heart Academy, an art school in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1901. At
school she discovered her blooming talent for artwork. Her art seemed to be
the only stable element in O'Keeffe's younger life. In 1902 her parents moved
to Virginia and were joined by the children in 1903. By the age of 16,
O'Keeffe had 5 years of private art lessons at various schools in Wisconsin
and Virginia. One particular teacher, Elizabeth Willis, encouraged her to work
at her own pace and granted her opportunities that the other students felt
were unfair. At times she would work intensely, and at other times she would
not work for days. When it was brought to the attention of the principal, she
would reply..."When the spirit moves Georgia, she can do more in a day than
you can do in a week" After receiving her diploma in 1905 she left for Chicago
to live with her aunt and attend the Art Institute of Chicago. She did not
return to the Institute the following year after getting Typhoid Fever.
Instead, in 1907 she enrolled at the Art Student League in New York City.
Discouraged with her work, she did not return to the League in the fall of
1908, but moved back to Chicago and found work as a commercial artist. During
this period O'Keeffe did not pick up a brush, and said that the smell of
turpentine made her sick. She moved back to her family in Williamsburg,
Virginia in 1909 and later enrolled at a nearby college. In 1912 a friend in
Texas wrote to her explaining of a teaching position was open in Amarillo,
Texas for a "drawing supervisor". O'Keeffe applied for the position and was
hired for the fall semester. O'Keeffe also made trips to Virginia in the
summer months to teach at the University of Virginia. She would remain working
at Amarillo until 1914. After resigning her job in Amarillo, O'Keeffe moved to
New York City to attend Columbia Teachers College until accepting a teaching
position at Columbia College in South Carolina. Having a light schedule, she
felt it would be an ideal job that would give her time to paint. It was at
this time that she left behind all she had been taught about in regards to
painting and began to paint as she felt. "I have things in my head that are
not like what anyone has taught me...shapes and ideas so near to me...so
natural to my way of being and thinking that it hasn't occurred to me to put
them down..." During her summers, she studied and taught art at the University
of Virginia, working with Alon Bement, who introduced her to the theories of
Arthur Wesley Dow. Returning to New York in 1914, she enrolled at Columbia
Teachers College to study under Dow, whom she later credited as the strongest
influence on the development of her art. In 1916, O'Keeffe's friend Anita
Politzer showed some of these abstract drawings to photographer Alfred
Stieglitz, who exhibited them at his avant garde gallery 291, on Fifth Avenue
in New York. He exclaimed, "At last, a woman on paper!" and told Anita the
drawings were the "purest, finest, sincerest things that had entered 291 in a
long while.". He explained that he would like to show them. O'Keeffe had first
visited 291 in 1908, and later on several occasions, but had never talked with
Stieglitz, although she had high regard for his opinions as a critic, "I
believe I would rather have Stieglitz like something...anything I had
done...than anyone else I know of...". In April Stieglitz exhibited 10 of her
drawings, and she had not been consulted before the exhibit and only learned
about it through an acquaintance. She confronted Stieglitz for the first time
over the drawings and later agreeing to let them hang in his gallery. Needing
a job, and missing the wide, flat spaces of northern Texas, Georgia accepted a
teaching job at West Texas State Normal College in the fall of 1916. While in
Texas she would often make trips to the nearby Palo Duro Canyon, hiking down
the steep slopes to observe the sandstone formations. At least 50 watercolors
were painted during the time spent in Canyon, Texas. "It was all so far
away...there was quiet and an untouched feel to the country and I could work
as I pleased." Georgia's first solo show opened at the 291 gallery in April
1917. Most of the exhibit had been these watercolors from Texas. After the
show Stieglitz decided to close 291 due to financial difficulties but said,
"Well I'm through...but I have given the world a woman." During the winter
Georgia became ill with a flu that was sweeping the country. She took a leave
of absence from the teaching job and later resigned. It's possible that there
was pressure from the community to encourage her resignation. One good reason
was for what people called "radical views", which she had concerning the
United States' entry into the war in Europe along with other rebel opinions
that were shocking to the small Texas town. She was encouraged by Stieglitz to
return to New York. By this time he had fallen in love with O'Keeffe and
wanted to pursue a relationship. He being in an unhappy marriage, had moved
out from the family home and into his studio. She boarded a train in June of
1918 to return to New York, Stieglitz, and to a new life that would make her
into one of the most important artist of the century. Shortly after her
arrival, Alfred took Georgia up to the Stieglitz family home at Lake George in
the Adirondack Mountains. They would return to the lake home each summer for
years to come. Georgia produced many paintings of the Lake George countryside
during these years. Stieglitz was Georgia's most avid supporter. He arranging
shows, and sold her paintings. Buying an "O'Keeffe" was not only expensive,
but a collector needed to meet Stieglitz's somewhat hazy standards for owning
one. By this time she was known only as "O'Keeffe" to the art world. She
rarely signed a painting, but instead would sometimes print an "OK" on the
back of the canvas. Alfred's wife divorced him in September 1924 and he began
to press O'Keeffe into marriage. She was reluctant to do so since they had
lived together since 1918 and had survived the scandal, seeing no reason to
marry now. She finally gave in and they married late in December. During the
long winter months in New York she began to paint her very large flowers, some
of her most popular work today. She completed her first enormous flower
painting in 1924. The giant flower paintings were first exhibited in 1925. A
Calla Lily painting would sell for $25,000 in 1928 and had drawn media
attention to "O'Keeffe" like never before. O'Keeffe's financial success would
finally prove to her that an artist could make a living with a paintbrush. In
1925 she and Stieglitz moved to the Shelton Hotel in New York, taking an
apartment on the 30th floor of the new building. They would live here for 12
years. With such a spectacular view, Georgia began to paint the city. By 1928
O'Keeffe began to feel the need to travel and to find other sources for
painting. The demands of an annual show needed new material. Friends returning
from the West with stories stimulated Georgia's desire to see and explore new
places. Alfred had no desire to leave New York and Lake George...he hated
change of any type. In May of 1929, Georgia would set out by train with her
friend, Beck Strand, to Taos, New Mexico...a trip that would forever change
her life. Georgia found that the thin, dry air enabled her to see farther and
at times could see several approaching thunderstorms in the distance at once.
She affectionately referred to the land of northern New Mexico as "the
faraway", better defined as a place of stark beauty and infinite space. Soon
after their arrival, Georgia and Beck where invited to stay at Mable Dodge
Luhan's ranch outside of Taos for the summer. She would go on many backpacking
trips exploring the rugged mountains and deserts of the region. On one trip
she visited the D.H. Lawrence ranch and spent several weeks there. While in
Taos she visited the historical mission church at Ranchos de Taos. Although
she painted the church as many artists had done before, her painting of only a
fragment of the mission wall silhouetted against the dark blue sky would
portray it as no artist had before. "...I often painted fragments of things
because it seemed to make my statement as well as or better than the whole
could...I had to create an equivalent for what I felt about what I was looking
at...not copy it." Being a loner, Georgia wanted to explore this wonderful
place on her own. She bought a Model A Ford and asked others to teach her how
to drive. After one particularly exasperating moment, one of her teachers
declared that she was unable to learn the art of driving. Only her
determination was to lead to mastering her machine. In her yearly visits to
New Mexico she would travel the back roads in the Model A ford. O'Keeffe
remodeled her vehicle. She removed the backseat, and would unbolt the front
seat, and turned it around so that she could prop her canvas against the back
wall of the car. Georgia would return to New Mexico, which she considered "her
land", each summer until Stieglitz's death in 1946. O'Keeffe spent three years
in the city settling his estate. In 1949 at the of age 62, she made New Mexico
her permanent residence. She dividing her time between her summer home at
Ghost Ranch and an adobe house she had renovated in the historic village of
Abiquiu. O'Keeffe traveled internationally, painted and continued to enjoy her
status as a supreme American artist. To add to her accomplishments, in 1977,
she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Gerald R. Ford. The final
days of O'Keeffe's life were spent in her home. She was well into her 90's and
was tired with life. One friend stated that when visiting her had asking of
her current condition, O'Keeffe stated "it's time for me to go.". By this time
she had lost most of her sight, and could only hold onto her art by sculpting
and working with ceramics. However the results were unsatisfactory to her. As
her health began to fail, many people remarked at her solid grasp on reality,
and her calm peace of mind. She would not make it to her 100th birthday, she
died on March 7, 1986, shortly after entering a Santa Fe hospital. She was 98.
Word Count: 2035
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