Name: How to see more and care less: The art of Georgia O'Keeffe - Iseult Gillespie
Uploaded: 2020-10-23T21:25:47.000Z
Duration: 5 min
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

A canvas drenched in sunset hues, colors radiating like flame.

At first glance, this painting may appear  to be an impossible, abstract image.

But a closer look reveals  the tender stems,

lush petals and velvety texture  of a Canna Lily.

This metamorphosis of natural subjects into abstract geometry

is commonplace in the work  of Georgia O'Keeffe—

the revolutionary American painter  and sculptor.

But the magic behind  this transformation remains

Born in Wisconsin in 1887, O'Keeffe spent her childhood plucking wildflowers

At seventeen, she moved to Chicago  to study at the prestigious Art Institute.

Her teachers trained her  to faithfully reproduce reality

Although she enjoyed the solitude  and precision of this work,

O'Keeffe felt little  personal connection to it.

After moving to New York, she was  increasingly drawn to the clean lines,

striking composition and vivid colors  of Japanese art.

O'Keeffe soon found a teacher  whose lessons inspired her

Arthur Wesley Dow urged his students to focus on more abstract representations

These lessons manifested in O'Keeffe's first series of abstract drawings.

Rendered in charcoal, they present  a series of undulating lines,

These drawings defy easy classification—

suggesting, but never quite matching, any specific natural reference.

Earlier European painters  in the Cubist tradition

had employed rigid geometry to abstract external subjects.

But here, O'Keeffe employed  the shapes and rhythms of nature

Experiments like these  would soon become a cornerstone

of an artistic movement  called American Modernism.

Although no single style defines  Modernist painting,

its proponents shared a desire  to challenge the realist traditions

Beginning in the late 1910's,  Modernist painting

often used geometric shapes  and bold colors

O'Keeffe threw herself  into these experiments —

but she was reluctant  to share her new work.

However, when a friend sent her charcoals to the art dealer Alfred Stieglitz,

In 1916, he arranged  for a grand exhibition in New York.

This marked the beginning of O'Keeffe's career as a popular artist—

and a relationship that would lead  to marriage in 1924.

Marriage didn't diminish O'Keeffe's taste for solitude.

and often retreated to paint  for months at a time.

Whether she was exploring  the craggy canyons of Texas,

the quiet forests of South Carolina,  or the sun-bleached desert of New Mexico,

her creative process was based on  ritual and close observation.

She paid meticulous attention  to small details,

and spent hours mixing paints  to create exactly the right colors.

When she found the perfect hue, she'd record it

in her ever-growing collection of handmade color cards.

O'Keeffe also experimented  with perspective to celebrate objects

she places a weathered skull  and a delicate flower

This massive skull overshadows  the landscape,

casting both the skeleton  and the mountains in a new, eerie light.

The public was captivated by her  unique perspective and secretive behavior.

She was particularly praised  for her massive flower paintings,

ranging from fiery poppies  to ghostly calla lillies.

Stieglitz and other critics of the time  were infatuated by Freudian psychology,

and were quick to link these paintings to female genitalia.

But O'Keeffe dismissed  such interpretations.

She resented the male gaze  that dominated the art world,

for its emotional evocation  of the natural world.

Eventually, O'Keeffe settled down  in New Mexico,

near one of her favorite artist retreats.

but she continued to mine the landscape's mysteries in new, tactile mediums.

O'Keeffe kept creating  until her death at 98,

and is remembered as  the “Mother of American Modernism.”

Decades on, her work retains  its wild energy—