Georgia O'Keeffe, art and letters

About this book

The paintings and drawings reproduced include abstractions, flower paintings, cityscapes, landscapes, still lifes, and figure studies. This volume is a catalog accompanying the centennial exhibition of American artist Georgia O'Keeffe's (1887-1986) work at the National Gallery of Art. This work includes color reproductions of the 120 pieces in the exhibition, as well as 125 letters O'Keeffe wrote during her lifetime. This survey includes charcoals and pencil drawings on paper, but most is devoted to her work in color -- water colors and pastels on paper, and oils on canvas. O'Keeffe's letters are grouped according to four periods in her life: 1915-1918, when she was an art teacher in Virginia, South Carolina and Texas; 1919-1929, when she lived with Alfred Stieglitz in New York; 1929-1946, a period of time when she became more attached to the Southwest, and broke with the way of life in New York City and the east coast; and 1947-1981, when, after Stieglitz's death, she moved to and took up residence in New Mexico permanently. Through the personal letters that form the core of the book, O'Keeffe emerges as an even more complex and passionate person than she herself was willing to reveal before her death in 1986.