O’Keeffe

Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986) was a major figure in modern American art for some seven decades. Importantly, her fame was not associated with shifting art styles and trends, but rather with her own unique vision, based on finding essential and abstract forms in nature.

O’Keeffe’s primary subjects were landscapes, flowers, and bones, each explored in successive series over several years. Certain works went on for decades, producing 12 or more variations of an original image. Among these, O’Keeffe’s magnified pictures of calla lilies and irises are her most famous. Enlarging the tiniest petals to fill an entire canvas, O’Keeffe created a proto-abstract vocabulary of shapes and lines, earning her the moniker „mother of American modernism.“ In 1946, O’Keeffe became the first female artist to be given a solo show at the MoMA in New York.

This introductory book from TASCHEN Basic Art 2.0 traces O’Keeffe’s long and luminous career through key paintings, contemporary photographs, and portraits taken by Alfred Stieglitz, to whom O’Keeffe was married. We follow the artist through her pioneering innovations, major breakthroughs, and her travels and inspirations in Southeast Asia, India, the Middle East, and, above all, New Mexico, where she was particularly inspired by the majestic landscapes, vivid colors and exotic vegetation.

About the series

Born back in 1985, the Basic Art Series has evolved into the best-selling art book collection ever published. Each book in TASCHEN’s Basic Art series features:

a detailed chronological summary of the life and oeuvre of the artist, covering his or her cultural and historical importance

a concise biography

approximately 100 illustrations with explanatory captions

Editorial Reviews

About the Author
Britta Benke studied art history, classical archaeology and romance languages in Göttingen, MĂĽnster and Bonn. Georgia O’Keeffe is the main focus of her research and also the subject of her thesis.