Author
James Darton
Contributing Editor
Unless our sudden heatwave has forced you into a closed-curtain-bedroom retreat, if you live in London you’re probably aware that there’s a major new retrospective of Georgia O’Keefe’s work currently exhibiting at the Tate Modern. The posters are all over the tube, complete with a quote from O’Keeffe that echoes Serena William’s own recent comments on the reductive way successful women are often framed: ‘Men put me down as the best woman painter… I think I’m one of the best painters.’
Those posters also feature a blown up image of one of her paintings featuring perhaps her most famous motif: flowers. Along with animal skulls and desert landscapes, her work featured magnified compositions of blooming plant life. Unlike many of her contemporaries, O’Keeffe was immediately acclaimed as a pioneering artist upon the debut of her show in 1916. Exactly 100 years later, her reputation in the art world, and her painting Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1 (1932) remains the most expensive painting by a female artist ever to be sold at auction.
O’Keeffe’s iconic status is often as magnified as the petals on her canvas, something which some argue detracts from the work itself - art historian Griselda Pollock called this a “destructive hyper-visibility.” However, there is little doubt that O’Keeffe’s life - beginning on a Wisconsin dairy farm in 1887 and ending 99 years later in the relative luxury of her Santa Fe home - offer a particularly visible narrative of an independent, twentieth century woman.
What’s also of little doubt is the way in which her magnificent paintings for the most part retain their glory no matter how they are reproduced. Below, we reproduce some of our own personal favourites to wake you from any sunny slumber you might be experiencing right now…
“Most people in the city rush around so they have no time to look at a flower. I want them to see it whether they want to or not.”
![1 Floom Magazine Georgia Okeeffe Flowers Static Standard 1](https://floom.imgix.net/products/1_floom_magazine_georgia_okeeffe_flowers_static_standard_1.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=1440&s=19605c9bfb18cad8d7a560a7832e467e 1440w, https://floom.imgix.net/products/1_floom_magazine_georgia_okeeffe_flowers_static_standard_1.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=1000&s=c92390d06ee919a1efe124c2a17b909a 1000w, https://floom.imgix.net/products/1_floom_magazine_georgia_okeeffe_flowers_static_standard_1.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=600&s=4e4d435175204ab644867fd401e887a6 600w, https://floom.imgix.net/products/1_floom_magazine_georgia_okeeffe_flowers_static_standard_1.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=400&s=c734807beaef3d417372c03eb99e0aa0 400w)
![1 Floom Magazine Georgia Okeeffe Flowers Wsj 1](https://floom.imgix.net/products/1_floom_magazine_georgia_okeeffe_flowers_wsj_1.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=1440&s=7e18f1709699646778efa3a1ba3ce651 1440w, https://floom.imgix.net/products/1_floom_magazine_georgia_okeeffe_flowers_wsj_1.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=1000&s=9c5a6dd3af04bac02ce5b4bc9b36a305 1000w, https://floom.imgix.net/products/1_floom_magazine_georgia_okeeffe_flowers_wsj_1.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=600&s=873239c601e66e4e37fe0e2bb4762fb5 600w, https://floom.imgix.net/products/1_floom_magazine_georgia_okeeffe_flowers_wsj_1.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=400&s=dd78d889310dc9f94dd09660472d67e0 400w)
![1 Floom Magazine Georgia Okeeffe Flowers Sartle 1](https://floom.imgix.net/products/1_floom_magazine_georgia_okeeffe_flowers_sartle_1.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=1440&s=5de0d56089669a6a9c41034116a7dd23 1440w, https://floom.imgix.net/products/1_floom_magazine_georgia_okeeffe_flowers_sartle_1.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=1000&s=c04c4a8ae24be8972e5c6bec58aac03e 1000w, https://floom.imgix.net/products/1_floom_magazine_georgia_okeeffe_flowers_sartle_1.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=600&s=f154b6932826873c353bda79b94be121 600w, https://floom.imgix.net/products/1_floom_magazine_georgia_okeeffe_flowers_sartle_1.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=400&s=c672dc8f85cd10e646f4e77136ec7c68 400w)
![1 Floom Magazine Georgia Okeeffe Flowers Totallyhistory 1](https://floom.imgix.net/products/1_floom_magazine_georgia_okeeffe_flowers_totallyhistory_1.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=1440&s=e8183e0978b2cdd39b4107e91ce36cdd 1440w, https://floom.imgix.net/products/1_floom_magazine_georgia_okeeffe_flowers_totallyhistory_1.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=1000&s=bedc4a5c832c2732108fe3a21e8a3979 1000w, https://floom.imgix.net/products/1_floom_magazine_georgia_okeeffe_flowers_totallyhistory_1.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=600&s=994af89b6d959a936338cfd23ad31ea3 600w, https://floom.imgix.net/products/1_floom_magazine_georgia_okeeffe_flowers_totallyhistory_1.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=400&s=04f3e31f66c65839ceac605f168e3ab5 400w)
![1 Floom Magazine Georgia Okeeffe Flowers Theartteacher 1](https://floom.imgix.net/products/1_floom_magazine_georgia_okeeffe_flowers_theartteacher_1.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=1440&s=d4518ef91eb49b9480bc2c94cd357929 1440w, https://floom.imgix.net/products/1_floom_magazine_georgia_okeeffe_flowers_theartteacher_1.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=1000&s=82745ec2b0e29bad11b9aaa9b0799826 1000w, https://floom.imgix.net/products/1_floom_magazine_georgia_okeeffe_flowers_theartteacher_1.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=600&s=9f29e17f8bbfdc9297cbed9d1c24621f 600w, https://floom.imgix.net/products/1_floom_magazine_georgia_okeeffe_flowers_theartteacher_1.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=400&s=db3d704d07c0f956a6b1d8503fe49a16 400w)
Photo Credits:
- standard
- wsj
- Sartle
- Totally history
- The art teacher