Georgia O Keeffe: Sexual Imagery In Art

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I’ve been curious about Georgia O’Keeffe, since my second job in the 80’s when it was popular to sell Nagel, Ansel Adams and Georgia O’Keeffe prints. “O’Keeffe’s landscapes and still life’s are among the most reproduced paintings in popular media” (Carlin, 2009). I always wondered what O’Keeffe was thinking about while she was painting, since all I saw was sexual imagery disguised as flowers. Many art critics came to the same conclusion, which Georgia adamantly denied, but a few critics state she accentuates the sexuality within each object. Georgia insisted the abstract sexual imagery was in the eye of the beholder, and not her intention. From the quotes of Georgia O’Keeffe I read, "If I could paint the flower exactly as I see it no one…show more content…
She had the distinction of being the first woman to have a retrospective show at the Museum of Modern Art. She was awarded the Gold Medal of Painting by the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1970. In 1977, President Gerald Ford awarded her the Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest honor for a civilian given by the government. In 1985, just one year before her death, she received the National Medal of Arts from President Ronald Reagan. (Georgia O'Keeffe's lifetime awards, n.d.)
In May of 1938 she received her first honorary degree from College of William and Mary. She received many other honorary degrees during her lifetime. April 21st 1928, Stieglitz announces the sale of six O’Keeffe calla lily paintings for $25,000, a first for a living artist.
In 1949, three years after Stieglitz’s death, she made New Mexico her permanent home and worked in oil, until the mid1970’s. Inspired by macro photography, she used vibrant colors with implied lines, sensualizing and magnifying individual objects. In the 70’s her eyesight “began to be compromised by macular degeneration” (Georgia O'Keeffe - Biography, Quotations & Art, n.d.). After this she worked in watercolor and pencil until 1982, and sculpted in clay until 1984. She died in 1986, in Santa Fe, 98 years

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