Georgia O'Keeffe in New Mexico at 92
In honor of International Women's Day, here's a video of one of modernism's most enduring female painters, Georgia O'Keeffe. The artist had visited New Mexico on and off since 1928 but in 1940 she bought a house in Ghost Ranch. This video captures O'Keeffe at age 92, still in New Mexico, and still d
In honor of International Women’s Day, here’s a video of one of modernism’s most enduring female painters, Georgia O’Keeffe. The artist had visited New Mexico on and off since 1928 but in 1940 she bought a house in Ghost Ranch. This video captures O’Keeffe at age 92, still in New Mexico, and still drawing inspiration from the landscape around her.
O’Keeffe is known for her abstract landscapes, the most famous of which come from her time in New Mexico. From the “Ram’s Head White Hollyhock and Little Hills” of 1935 to O’Keeffe renderings of Ranchos church, the artist’s view of her surroundings provided the subject for her most iconic work. New Mexico was also the artist’s home until her death at age 98.
“The first year I was up here there were no flowers, so I began picking up bones,” O’Keeffe explains the transition from her earlier floral paintings, “I wanted to take something home to work on.” The narration is accompanied by footage of the artist wandering through the desert landscape, pondering skulls and knotty spines, describing how she took a “barrel of bones” back home east to paint.
About the skulls, O’Keeffe says, “it never occurs to me that they have anything to do with death. They are very lively, they please me.” The whole short documentary, though long at 10 minutes of YouTube video, is worth watching if simply to catch a glimpse of an artistic giant thinking through the path of her career.
