Georgia O'Keeffe

by Georgia O'Keeffe

Long recognised as a major figure in American art, Georgia O'Keefe has had a number of retrospective exhibitions at leading American museums, each one a major event. Yet no full colour collection of her work has been available until now. This comprehensive volume consists of 108 colour plates accompanied by text written by the artist.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Biography, Reference, Autobiography, Art History, Womens

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Georgia Totto O'Keeffe was an American artist. She is associated with the American Southwest, where she found artistic inspiration, and particularly New Mexico, where she settled late in life. O'Keeffe has been a major figure in American art since the 1920s. She is chiefly known for paintings in which she synthesized abstraction and representation in paintings of flowers, rocks, shells, animal bones and landscapes. Her paintings present crisply contoured forms that are replete with subtle tonal transitions of varying colors. She often transformed her subject matter into powerful abstract images.

Reviews

[Chrissie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recommend reading this book after Portrait of an Artist: A Biography of Georgia O'Keeffe, which I gave five stars. The first is a biography of her whole life. With that as a background you easily recognize the people and the places she speaks of. Here, the artist speaks only of her art. This is a large format book showing the paintings of the author as well as the artist's reasons for and explanations of each artwork. It explains what she was trying to do with each painting.

I find this line, on page 63, essential:

"And I long ago came to the conclusion that even if I could put down accurately the thing that I saw and enjoyed, it could not give to the observer the kind of feeling that it gave me."

She says this as an explanation of why she so often paints parts of an object, rather than the whole. Yet the same idea lays behind her other techniques and how different individuals perceive all art. She stresses the importance of shape, that a shape can hold beauty. She explains how it is the hole that pulls her rather than the object itself, for example the startling blue sky in the hole encircled by a pelvis bone. She expresses her view on objective versus abstract art. You learn how one painting led to another, and when you see the progression you more easily comprehend the message. She specifies how she made the artwork, step by step from the stretching of the canvas to the final transport to the studio. Painstaking hard work.

You see paintings of shells, of flowers, of bones, of houses, of NYC, of antlers, of stones, of skies, of clouds, of hills.

To understand O'Keeffe's painting I had to read this book. With her help I have come to understand what she wanted said. What I looked at before with unknowing eyes I now look at with a new perspective and see the beauty she wanted me to see.

Each of us is different. Without her accompanying lines, most of us will probably not see what she was trying to say. Yet if a form / a shape has beauty, while our interpretations may differ, we should see that beauty.

[J.D. Steens · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never thought I cared for O’Keeffe’s paintings. I liked her biography more. At Ghost Ranch, I heard about a single book she had published that contained just over a hundred hand-picked paintings, with commentary. I let it pass. Then at Goodwill, I saw the book, bought it and had a nice reaction to it.

In her commentary that describes her approach to painting, she says that “I found that I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say in any other way—things that I had no words for.” It was about “the idea of filling space in a beautiful way.” It was the idea “that music could be translated into something for the eye to see.” The “Shell and Old Shingle” were for her “singing shapes.”

She notes that since flowers were too small for people to appreciate, she made them big and then, as to imputed meaning, there’s this quote from her: “Well--I made you take time to look at what I saw and when you took time to really notice my flower you hung all your own associations with flowers on my flower and you write about my flower as if I think and see what you think and see of the flower--and I don’t.” For her “Black and White,” she writes that “This was a message to a friend--if he saw it he didn’t know it was to him and wouldn’t have known what it said. And neither did I.”

She called her New Mexico landscapes “the Far Away.” It, and its contents, is a world of “wideness and wonder” that she reduced to its essence. In one painting, with just shape and color, hills hold and embrace the sky.

[Sirpa Grierson · Rating 3 out of 5]

O'Keeffe on O'Keeffe. "I am often amazed at the spoken and written word telling me what I have painted. I make this effort because no one else can know how my paintings happen."

Gorgeous book in her own spare, inimitable style; with 108 selected paintings. I looked at everything differently after this book. Shapes and colors of the "wideness and wonder of the world" as she lived it.

[Büşra Parlak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bu serinin tamamına sahip olmayı çok isterdim. Baskısına ve kalitesine vuruldum. İceriği de bence yeterince detaylı en azından benim için. Kare sanat serisinden ne bulursam alacağım bu kitap ile buna karar verdim:)

[Olivia VanDamme · Rating 4 out of 5]

Received this as a Christmas gift, and immediately opened the book to learn more about this iconic American artist. I enjoy the way Georgia observed the natural world and shared her perspective through painting. As someone who also loves collecting “flowers, sea shells, rocks, and pieces of wood… and beautiful white bones” I am inspired by her way of portraying the beauty of small parts of nature and larger landscapes in an abstract way. Very inspired to continue to make art in the new year & continue to observe the beauty of the natural world & share with others, just as Georgia did. Favorite quote from Georgia, “The unexplainable thing in nature that makes me feel the world is big far beyond my understanding- to understand maybe by trying to put it into form. To find the feeling of infinity on the horizon line or just over the next hill.” Some favorite pieces, Evening Star IV, 1917, Two Calla Lilies on Pink, 1928, Corn, Dark 1924, Wave, Night 1928, Nature Forms 1932, Red and Orange Hill, 1938, Ram’s Head with Hollyhock, 1935

[Monica · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a groundbreaking book when it first came out. Never had so many of O'Keeffe's paintings been available. It's a tall, narrow, oversized book with large type, open spaces and full page reproductions complemented by Georgia's own commentary. You get the feeling her hand was really involved in this book.

[Cristiana Pagliarusco · Rating 5 out of 5]

... what should I say? ... she has made my dreams come true. when working meets loving.

[hayat · Rating 5 out of 5]

#recommendedbyRM

[Peter Tillman]

This is the book that Calvin Tompkin's agent sold to Viking in 1976. From his New Yorker memoir (2025):
"What she wanted was for me to look at notes she had been writing about her paintings. O’Keeffe had decided to publish them, but her younger sister Claudia had told her they were ungrammatical and should not be published. The notes were vintage O’Keeffe—brief, vivid, enlightening, and, yes, often ungrammatical, but brilliantly so. I told her they should absolutely be published."

I can't recall if I've read this. If nothing else, Internet Archive's Open Library has a free copy. This would be a poor source for the art, but fine for her remark.

[CK · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. Reading O'Keefe's stories, life philosophies, views on nature and emotion - paired alongside her wondrous paintings - really has cemented her as one of my favorite artists of all time. Especially because this book was self-written - no horrible men trying to inflict their eroticism over her artwork and message. I am really sad returning it to the library and wish to own a copy one day.

[Burd · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've always been inspired by the work of Georgia O'Keefe. Her paintings have a spiritual feel to them. The rich, deep colours and the flowing shapes fading into and out of one another, the sharp angles cutting into a soft background, all make her paintings so fascinating to look at.

I had owned this book for many years and looked through it so many times enjoying the beautiful colour plates After recently seeing her work at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, I picked it up again to re-read the text and gain more insight into her work. You always take your own views into account when looking at a painting that appeals to you but to know about the thoughts of the artist behind their paintings adds an extra dimension to how you look at it and enhances the enjoyment of that art.

Georgia O'Keefe had a beautiful and unique gift of being able to see things, ordinary things, in a different way than most people could. This was due in part to her synesthesia, a condition present in about 4% of the population where sensory perceptions are crossed over. In her case, she could experience colour perception with certain sounds. She expressed this perception in a number of her paintings.

Also, from reading her writings, I could see she was an introspective and sensitive woman. She was very deeply touched by the beauty in nature and carried that into her work. I enjoyed re-reading this book and I plan to some day visit her museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

[Barbara Rice · Rating 5 out of 5]

This looks like a coffee table book, and it could be used as that, but it shouldn't be treated like one. The paintings, text, and layout was all selected and approved by Georgia O'Keefe. The colors are the most faithful possible (at the time of printing) to the original works.

When reading this, I feel like I am walking through time as narrated by Georgia O'Keefe - from the 1890's in Wisconsin, into the 1920's in New York City, to an enormous vacation home in upstate New York in the '30's, and finally to the desolate New Mexico through the remainder of the twentieth century.

[Melinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating words and amazing art from one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. The early essay about her childhood and art training in Chicago and New York is worth the price of admission, but the large color plates of her watercolors, New York oils, and famous Southwestern canvasses make this an enlightening coffee table book. As O'Keeffe says, "I had been taught to work like others and after careful thinking I decided that I wasn't going to spend my life doing what had already been done." What a manifesto for women and creative souls everywhere.

[Bonnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love her work and have owned this book for over 20 years--super pictures too

[Grady Ormsby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Years ago as part of a visit with our friend in Taos, Kitty and I visited the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe. We were quite impressed. So when we saw an announcement for Georgia O’Keeffe: Modern Living at the Reynolda House Museum of American Art in Winston-Salem, we knew we had to go. It was a terrific visit. A few days after, Kitty told a friend about our visit. She loaned us a copy of Georgia O’Keeffe. At first glance it seems like any typical coffee table art book. But this one is different. There is no reason to rely on the judgments and opinions of scholars, researchers and critics. This book is by Georgia O’Keeffe. She selected the paintings. She wrote the commentary and captions. It was published in 1976 when she was 89 and covers all but the last ten years of her life. The book is as much a work of art as anything else she produced.
In the opening section of the book she defines herself and her art by saying, “I had been taught to work like others and after careful thinking I decided that I wasn’t going to spend my life doing what others had already done.” Her early painting include abstractions, her New York scenes (despite being told painting New York couldn’t be done) and, of course, flowers, large flowers which would be a regular subject throughout her career. Of flowers she said, “I’ll paint it big and they will be surprised into taking time to look at it.” Many of her analytical remarks are actually refutations of what others thought she was doing and assumptions about what they thought she meant. She has particularly strong words for those she refers to as “The men,”
especially when it comes to suggestions as to what they thought she should and shouldn’t, could and couldn’t do. For the most part she ignored critics. “Flattery and criticism go down the same drain and I am quite free.”
The book is arranged in chronological order and the reader/viewer is taken on a journey through the various periods of her career: the alligator pears, the landscapes from Lake George and York Beach, Maine, and the St. Lawrence River. Her best known works are from the time she lived at Ghost Ranch in New Mexico: more flowers, many bones, surreal landscapes, the “singing shapes” of the shells and shingles, and the Ranchos de Taos Church. The New Mexico landscapes were done while camping from a Model T often in stark isolation and extreme weather conditions. I particularly enjoy comparing and contrasting multiple versions of the same subject sometimes painted years apart. Check out your local or regional museum. Support the arts!

[Jaimie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was only vaguely familiar with Georgia O’Keeffe’s artwork before reading this book, her reputation standing out largely in my mind as the artist who painted genitalia-like florals. Well. In this book O’Keeffe quickly and staunchly refutes her infamy and brings her own words to bear on her lifetime of work. She claims in the introduction that “no one else can know how [her] paintings happen,” and while each piece may be interpreted in the eye of the individual beholder (tinged by their own preconceptions and experiences), hearing O’Keeffe speak words alongside her brushstrokes is a valuable experience. Beginning with O’Keeffe’s childhood, the book grounds itself in her earliest memories and experiences before traipsing eloquently into her discovery of art at school and then her artworks themselves. Her language is sparse, but evokes a certain lightly pictorial quality that pairs well with the abstracted but somehow realistic paintings; rarely does she explore meanings outright, but describes instead the circumstances in which the painting was created, the multiple editions before the “finished” piece, and her journey through life, which seem to gather the artworks into a travelling diary of her time in New York, Canada, New Mexico, and elsewhere. I was almost shocked as I turned the pages of the book to uncover increasingly impactful pieces steeped in lucious colours, granular textures, and evocative compositions that were far more than the “vagina flowers” that seem to dominate the popular cultural references to her work. In fact, by the time I reached the florals partway through the narrative, I was well convinced that these weren’t even her best work. Sure, the flowers are gorgeous, and I can see how her macro-abstractions would have been a visual shock to the traditional detailed (and overly feminine) Victorian, Romantic, or even Impressionist florals of earlier decades, but her other work is easily as appealing. Combined with the stories of each locale that she painted into gorgeous abstraction, her journey through the American landscape seems far more impressive.

[Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Later, when I was looking for a place to live, I decided to try the Shelton. I was shown two rooms on the 30th floor. I had never lived up so high before and was so excited that I began talking about trying to paint New York. Of course, I was told that it was an impossible idea - even the men hadn’t done too well with it. From my teens on I had been told that I had crazy notions so I was accustomed to disagreement and went on with my idea of painting New York...My large “New York” was sold the first afternoon. No one ever objected to my painting New York after that.”

“I often walked through the pasture to the back road and as I walked down past the beautiful juniper bushes the Shanty looked very shabby. It had never been painted and the outside boards were scorched by the sun. The clean, clear colors were in my head, but one day as I looked at the brown burned wood of the Shanty I thought, ‘I can paint one of those dismal-colored paintings like the men. I think just for fun I will try - all low-toned and dreary with the tree beside the door.’ In my next show ‘The Shanty’ went up. The men seemed to approve of it. They seemed to think that maybe I was beginning to paint. I don’t remember what the critics said about it, but when Duncan Phillips saw it he bought it for the Phillips Collection. That was my only low-toned dismal-colored painting.”

[Leslie Goddard · Rating 5 out of 5]

In one sense, this is a nice coffee-table book with lovely, large images of O'Keeffe's paintings and drawing, carefully chosen (by her) to cover a wide range of her work.

But in a larger sense, it is an introduction to who O'Keeffe was. By that, I don't mean it's an autobiography. It's not, and you won't get a full portrait of her life. Although you can get a sense of how important this book has been to biographers from how many passages are quoted over and over. I knew most of these stories already from having read several O'Keeffe biographies.

What you will get is a strong sense of who she was as an artist. The writing that she includes remind me of her paintings -- strong, clear snapshots of a moment in time that capture a feeling or a sense. Some of her comments are minimal -- some quite brief, others more fleshed-out, but always more concerned with conveying the emotions of a moment than telling a complete narrative. I felt that she was trying to capture for readers what art meant to her, how she approached her artistic projects and what paintings did for her that no other medium could.

Essential for an O'Keeffe lover, though I might not recommend it as a first introduction to her biography.

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I’ve had a print of a Georgia O’Keeffe painting in my home for the last 15 years, but I’ve known almost nothing about the artist or her other work. I saw this used book in a Goodwill store and it sparked an interest in me to learn more about her.

I am quite art-illiterate. I choose pieces that make me feel good in some way, but I have never attempted to understand more about art than that. This book is a professional autobiography and I thought it was interesting to read O’Keeffe’s creative process in her own words. I was also very surprised by the wide range of work she produced during her lifetime. I wish I could say I appreciated all of her work shown here, but many pieces were beyond my ability to see what she saw. Still, I appreciated the chance to see so many of her pieces.

I do wish there was more about O’Keefe’s personal life, but this was exclusively about her art. She often speaks about moving from place to place, but I felt disconnected from what drew her to move around so much. She also often talks about “we” without saying who was included in that “we”. I had more questions about her than answers by the time I was done reading. Regardless, I felt like this book was worth reading just to see the progression and diversity of her work.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading a novel based on the first part of O'Keeffe's life I wanted to see her paintings. This was a beautiful book, with good reproductions of the paintings and quotes from O'Keeffe about them, and her life. It was interesting to read O'Keefe's words set against the paintings. Could look at these images forever.

[Kristin · Rating 5 out of 5]

The unexplainable thing in nature that makes me feel the world is big far beyond my understanding - to understand maybe by trying to put it into form. To find the feeling of infinity on the horizon line or just over the next hill. ~Georgia O'Keeffe

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was written by Georgia O’Keeffe as well as featuring her paintings. I really enjoyed reading what she had to say about her work. The story of the production of the 24 foot long “Clouds” was very funny and I read it aloud to my girls!

[Michael McNamara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful reproductions of her work with helpful texts to illuminate them.

[Thomasin Propson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hearing her speak (write) about her work— I’d never done so before! Joyous! Our newest artist to hang and experience.

[Sep · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting collection of Georgia O'Keeffe's paintings and her comments on same.

[Sissy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible selection with the perfect amount of text.

[Lola Garcia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simple, straight forward, her art told by O'Keeffe herself. The book's large format invites contemplation and even meditation.

[Ann Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this many years ago but just ran across it today. It was a good read, informative & interesting survey of her life.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful. O’Keeffe writes like she paints.

[tatiana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Georgia in her own words?? Very precious for meeee