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Equal under the Sky: Georgia O’Keeffe and Twentieth-Century Feminism
2018 Choice Outstanding Academic Title
Equal under the Sky is the first historical study of Georgia O’Keeffe’s complex involvement with, and influence on, US feminism from the 1910s to the 1970s. Utilizing understudied sources such as fan letters, archives of women’s organizations, transcripts of women’s radio shows, and programs from women’s colleges, Linda M. Grasso shows how and why feminism and O’Keeffe are inextricably connected in popular culture and scholarship. The women’s movements that impacted the creation and reception of O’Keeffe’s art, Grasso argues, explain why she is a national icon who is valued for more than her artistic practice.
ACCLAIM
“This book is a fascinating and welcome addition to the oeuvre.”—Woman’s Art Journal
“Equal under the Sky offers a fresh perspective on Georgia O’Keeffe and the symbiosis between her art and twentieth-century feminism.”—New York Journal of Books
“This meticulously researched volume carefully follows the many diverse themes, personalities, ideas, and opportunities for expression in O’Keeffe’s life, careers, and art.”—Choice
“Show[s] us that O’Keeffe studies still have much to offer, and that fresh perspectives can still be retrieved on O’Keeffe’s richly lived life and prolific body of creative work.”—Panhandle-Plains Historical Review
“In this engaging and provocative study, Linda M. Grasso positions Georgia O’Keeffe’s identity and art making, her lived experiences and social/political allegiances, within the larger historical context of contested feminist politics in twentieth-century America. Combining a deeply researched discussion of the complexities of feminist movements in the US with biographical information drawn from an impressive array of primary sources, Grasso opens new possibilities for understanding and evaluating O’Keeffe’s continuing but conflicted relationship with varied aspects of American feminist experience.”—Helen Langa, author of Radical Art: Printmaking and the Left in 1930s New York
“Offers a fresh look at Georgia O’Keeffe and the multiple ways that feminism shaped her art, artistic identity, and career. Drawing from rich primary sources, including fan letters to O’Keeffe and media coverage of the artist, Linda M. Grasso demythologizes O’Keeffe’s self-representation as a gender-transcendent great American modernist and gives us a picture of O’Keeffe’s art as political and intricately connected to the feminist movements that shaped modernism and twentieth-century American culture.”—Donna Cassidy, author of Marsden Hartley: Race, Region, and Nation
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Linda M. Grasso is a professor of English at York College and of liberal studies at the Graduate Center at the City University of New York. She is the author of The Artistry of Anger: Black and White Women’s Literature in America, 1820–1860.
Equal under the Sky is the first historical study of Georgia O’Keeffe’s complex involvement with, and influence on, US feminism from the 1910s to the 1970s. Utilizing understudied sources such as fan letters, archives of women’s organizations, transcripts of women’s radio shows, and programs from women’s colleges, Linda M. Grasso shows how and why feminism and O’Keeffe are inextricably connected in popular culture and scholarship. The women’s movements that impacted the creation and reception of O’Keeffe’s art, Grasso argues, explain why she is a national icon who is valued for more than her artistic practice.
ACCLAIM
“This book is a fascinating and welcome addition to the oeuvre.”—Woman’s Art Journal
“Equal under the Sky offers a fresh perspective on Georgia O’Keeffe and the symbiosis between her art and twentieth-century feminism.”—New York Journal of Books
“This meticulously researched volume carefully follows the many diverse themes, personalities, ideas, and opportunities for expression in O’Keeffe’s life, careers, and art.”—Choice
“Show[s] us that O’Keeffe studies still have much to offer, and that fresh perspectives can still be retrieved on O’Keeffe’s richly lived life and prolific body of creative work.”—Panhandle-Plains Historical Review
“In this engaging and provocative study, Linda M. Grasso positions Georgia O’Keeffe’s identity and art making, her lived experiences and social/political allegiances, within the larger historical context of contested feminist politics in twentieth-century America. Combining a deeply researched discussion of the complexities of feminist movements in the US with biographical information drawn from an impressive array of primary sources, Grasso opens new possibilities for understanding and evaluating O’Keeffe’s continuing but conflicted relationship with varied aspects of American feminist experience.”—Helen Langa, author of Radical Art: Printmaking and the Left in 1930s New York
“Offers a fresh look at Georgia O’Keeffe and the multiple ways that feminism shaped her art, artistic identity, and career. Drawing from rich primary sources, including fan letters to O’Keeffe and media coverage of the artist, Linda M. Grasso demythologizes O’Keeffe’s self-representation as a gender-transcendent great American modernist and gives us a picture of O’Keeffe’s art as political and intricately connected to the feminist movements that shaped modernism and twentieth-century American culture.”—Donna Cassidy, author of Marsden Hartley: Race, Region, and Nation
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Linda M. Grasso is a professor of English at York College and of liberal studies at the Graduate Center at the City University of New York. She is the author of The Artistry of Anger: Black and White Women’s Literature in America, 1820–1860.
326 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 11, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 27, 2020
This book is a giver. I didn't know this part of O'keeffe's life at all...this is such a wholesome picture for those who know her art and want to know her as a person! Not an easy read, but patience is rewarded!
February 3, 2018
I enjoyed the weaving of O'Keeffe's life into the changes in feminism throughout the decades. Interesting read.
May 27, 2024
A very interesting chronicle of an artist in the early and mid twentieth century. The main thesis — that O’Keeffe had a complicated and at times contradictory relationship with gender and feminism — gets repeated a bit too often, but is well supported in this sympathetic, but not apologetic, analysis.
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November 12, 2018759.13 O41e 2017
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews