Mighty nature: The pioneering forms of Georgia 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 colours and exotic vegetation.

About the series:

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

This book explores how Georgia O’Keeffe lived her life steeped in modernism, bringing the same style she developed in her art to her dress, her homes, and her lifestyle.

Richly illustrated with images of her art and views of the two homes she designed and furnished in New Mexico, the book also includes never before published photographs of O’Keeffe’s clothes. The author has attributed some of the most exquisite of these garments to O’Keeffe, a skilled seamstress who understood fabric and design, and who has become an icon in today’s fashion world as much for her personal style as for her art. As one of her friends stated, O’Keeffe “never allowed her life to be one thing and her painting another.” This fresh and carefully researched study brings O’Keeffe’s style to life, illuminating how this beloved American artist purposefully proclaimed her modernity in the way she dressed and posed for photographers, from Alfred Stieglitz to Bruce Weber.

This beautiful book accompanies the first museum exhibition to bring together photographs, clothes, and art to explore O’Keeffe’s unified modernist aesthetic.

About the Author:

Wanda M. Corn is Robert and Ruth Halperin Professor Emerita in Art History at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. Her publications include Grant Wood: The Regionalist Vision, The Great American Thing: Modern Art and National Identity, and Seeing Gertrude Stein: Five Stories.

Flowers in the desert. Sensuality and color fuse with nature

The art of American painter Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986) is splendid with color and laden with hidden sensuality. O’Keeffe’s fame was largely earned by her large-format flower pictures that have assured her an unusual place in the annals of art, between realist and abstract.

Our Basic Art Series study traces the idiosyncratic of O’Keeffe’s career, and numerous illustrations document the most important periods in her lengthy life in art.

About the Series:
Every book in TASCHEN's Basic Art Series features:

• a detailed chronological summary of the artist's life and work, covering the cultural and historical importance of the artist
• approximately 100 color illustrations with explanatory captions
• a concise biography

The art of American painter Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986) is splendid with colour and laden with hidden sensuality. O'Keeffe's name rests mainly on the large-format flower pictures that have assured her an unusual place in the annals of art, between realist and abstract.

Our Basic Art Series study traces the idiosyncratic of O'Keeffe's career, and numerous illustrations document the most important periods in her lengthy life in art.

About the Series:
Every book in TASCHEN's Basic Art Series features:

• a detailed chronological summary of the artist's life and work, covering the cultural and historical importance of the artist
• approximately 100 color illustrations with explanatory captions
• a concise biography