Georgia O’Keeffe worksheet
     

    Life span: 1890 – 1980  Born in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin large family went to boarding school
         Knew she wanted to be an artist at age 12
     
     
    First job: teacher    influenced by: Arthur Dow, Alan Bement, William Merritt Chase
     
    Places she lived throughout her life: NYC, Columbia, NY, Lake George, NY, Texas, New Mexico,     South Carolina, Chicago, Illinois
     
    Subject matter in her work: bones, flowers, crosses, clouds, jack-in-a-pulpit, buildings, NYC, landscapes,        churches
    Paintings done in a series: bones, jack-in-a-pulpit, clouds, churches
     
    Style: Abstract    Media: charcoal, oil paint, watercolor  Type of color: bright
     
    Married to Alfred Stieglitz who was: Father of Modern Photograpy, Patron of the Arts, owned a gallery
           Made the most complete portrait of a O’Keeffe
     
    Artists who worked with Stieglitz and O’Keeffe: Dove, Marin Hartley, DeMuth, Strand
     
     In 1915 she stopped working because everything she had painted was done for someone else, not for her. So she put everything away and started over. She only worked in black and white until she felt she had to have color.
     
    Contrasts in the personalities of O’Keeffe and Stieglitz:
     
    Stieglitz            O’Keeffe
     
    Loved lots of people around him      Liked to be alone
    Liked living in the city        preferred the country
    Photographer          painter
     
    Great American Painting: piece with skull and red, white and blue in the background.
     
    Symbolism in her paintings: people saw sexual symbols in the flowers and death in her bones.
       She said she just enjoyed the shapes.
     
     

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