Works

Information about the work and context of creation

Blue flowers are rarely seen in nature. The bluish tones of these flowers have more to do with emotional expression through the bluish lights and shadows on the floral surface and volume. This makes this style especially interesting, which favours interpretation over strictly realistic representation.
 
Creation process. Vertical pastel of intense blue and green tones in rounded and bulbous shapes. At the bottom centre rises a small yellow bulb shape, hooded and surrounded by greenish white and blue. Upon this, symmetrically on either side of a deep blue centre, are two sets of large green rounded shapes opening upwards and outwards. In the middle, there is an ogre bow shape in blue, with a very dark blackish centre.
 
Starting in 1919, she develops Series I White & Blue Flower Shapes, a collection of works that shares with this one the abstraction of floral details in bluish tones.

This work is from the estate of artist Georgia O'Keeffe 1986 Abiquiu / New Mexico.
 
The process of disclosure of this work is that of the following exhibitions:
l  1997 Santa Fe (O'Keeffe) Inaugural
l  1998 Santa Fe (O'Keeffe) Permanent
l  1999 Santa Fe (O'Keeffe) Permanent Collection (Poetry of Things)
l  1999 Santa Fe (O'Keeffe) Permanent Collection (Four Painters/Skunk Cabbage)
l  2002 Santa Fe (O'Keeffe) Permanent Collection (Edward Weston)
l  2002 Santa Fe (O'Keeffe) GOKM 5th Anniversary
l  2004 Santa Fe (O'Keeffe) Permanent Collection (In the American Grain)
l  2005 Santa Fe (O'Keeffe) Permanent Collection (Fotografía de Charles Sheeler)
l  2005 Santa Fe (O'Keeffe) GOK and Andy Warhol: Flowers
l  2006 Santa Fe (O'Keeffe) Permanent Collection (Celebration of New Work)
l  2006 Santa Fe (O'Keeffe) GOK: Colour and Conservation
l  2006 Santa Fe (O'Keeffe) Permanent Collection (Paul Strand)
l  2007 Santa Fe (O'Keeffe) Permanent Collection (Living Artists: Sherrie Levine)
l  2007 Santa Fe (O'Keeffe) Permanent Collection (Circling Abstraction)
l  2008 Santa Fe (O'Keeffe) Permanent Collection (GOK and Camera)
l  2009 Santa Fe (O'Keeffe) Permanent Collection (Modernists in NM)
l  2009 Santa Fe (O'Keeffe) Permanent Collection (Beyond Our Shores/Jimson Weed Returns)
l  2010 Santa Fe (O'Keeffe) GOK: Abstraction; all the places
l  2011 Santa Fe (O'Keeffe) Shared Intelligence; all the places
l  2013 Santa Fe (O'Keeffe) Permanent Collection (Modern Nature)
l  2016 Santa Fe (O'Keeffe) Abstract Nature
 
Regarding the contemporary female context of creation of the time, her work is part of the feminist artistic movement of 1960. It is inspired by artists such as Hilma Af Klint, Anni Albers, Baroness Freytag-Loringhoven, Vanessa Bell, Pauline Boty, Louise Bourgeois, Claude Cahun, Julia Margaret Cameron, Dora Carrington, Leonora Carrington, Mary Cassatt, Camille Claudel, Imogen Cunningham, Elaine De Kooning, Leonor Fini, Natalia Goncharova, Eva Hesse, Hannah Höch, Frida Kahlo and Marie Laurencin. Many of the artists mentioned began to work, like her, in the early 1920s, and they also explored revolutionary points of view.
 
She was influenced by Auguste Rodin, Wassily Kandinsky and Frida Kahlo. She influenced Judy Chicago and Andy Warhol. Her friends and work companies include Alfred Stieglitz, Arthur Dove, Tamara de Lempicka, Charles Demuth and Beauford Delaney.
 
O'Keeffe is part of a long tradition of flower painters, among which, of course, the great Flemish painters of the 17th century led by Rachel Ruysch stand out. Two other important painters like Judith Leyster or Clara Peeters also painted flowers, and so did Caterina Inkes II (who was probably a beguine as well). The latter painted borders, a subgenre of flower paintings. In Italy, there are also representatives such as Margarita Caffi.
 
The contribution of flower painters to science is noteworthy, such as Elizabeth Blackwell’s or, above all, that of the great artist and entomologist Maria Sibylla Merian, whose work is highly valued in the art market, with contributions on the metamorphoses of insects that result essential to science. This relationship between art and science has been hand in hand with women.
 
We continue to find flowers in the work of artists such as the Impressionist Berthe Morisot or, to a lesser extent, Eva Gonzalès.
 
Throughout the last century, many female painters have used this theme and have given it different perspectives, such as the avant-garde Natalia Goncharova, Sonia Delaunay in fabric designs, the surrealist Remedios Varo or the gypsy artist Lita Cabellut, one of the most relevant current painters.
 
Her work is part of the 1960 feminist art movement, inspired by artists such as Hilma Af Klint, Anni Albers, Baroness Freytag-Loringhoven, Vanessa Bell, Pauline Boty, Louise Bourgeois, Claude Cahun, Julia Margaret Cameron, Dora Carrington, Leonora Carrington, Mary Cassatt, Camille Claudel, Imogen Cunningham, Elaine De Kooning, Leonor Fini, Natalia Goncharova, Eva Hesse, Hannah Höch, Frida Kahlo and Marie Laurencin.
 
Thus, it can be observed how the aspect that relates art and science is not minor in this theme of flowers. The precision in the botanical drawings turned out to be a very important element.
 

Indications

She can be studied in the subject fundamentals of art, in the 2nd year of Bachillerato; in the block of Modernism-Art Nouveau; or in the block of Surrealism and other Vanguards. It would be appropriate to highlight a female reference since, among the contents, only male artists stand out and there is a sexist bias in the selection.

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