Georgia O’Keeffe

The “Mother of American modernism” was best known for her paintings of enlarged flowers, New York skyscrapers, and New Mexico landscapes.

Georgia O’Keeffe’s fame for painting flowers is as well-known as Frida Kahlo’s uni-browed countenance and her parted, braided, and pinned hair. Indeed, O’Keeffe is known for painting flowers; however, she is also well regarded for NY skyscrapers, landscapes, and animal skulls.

Her career spanned 70 years and included phases or periods where she focused on different subjects, themes, and techniques. She was also a generous philanthropist who donated her husbands collection of photographs to Fisk University in 1949.

Georgia O’Keeffe was trained at the Art Institute in Chicago. She was well aware from childhood that she was attracted to artist endeavors. Her work has been characterized as uniquely American, visionary, sensuous, and creative.

Ms. O’Keeffe had both professional and personal relationships with Alfred Stieglitz. After Stieglitz expressed concern about her health, he encouraged her to relocate to New York City. O’Keeffe’s productivity increased after she relocated. Stieglitz, a noted art photographer in addition to being an art dealer, was instrumental in marketing and selling O’Keeffe’s work through his many connections within the New York art world.

O’Keeffe gifted the Alfred Stieglitz art collection (101-pieces of her husband’s American and European art) to Fisk University. The collection includes work by O’Keeffe, Picasso, Paul Cézanne, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. The collection, valued at more than $70 million, was at the forefront of art news for several years because of the university’s desire to deaccession pieces to raise funds for university operations.