Biography by YIXUAN WANG

Early Life & Background

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Georgia O'Keeffe was born on November 15, 1887,in a farmhouse in the town of Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. Her parents, Francis Calyxtus O'Keeffe and Ida (Totto) O'Keeffe, were dairy farmers. Her father was of Irish descent. Her mother's father, George Victor Totto, for whom O'Keeffe was named, was a Hungarian count who came to the United States in 1848. By age 10, she had decided to become an artist. With her sisters, Ida and Anita, she received art instruction from local watercolorist Sara Mann. O'Keeffe attended high school at Sacred Heart Academy in Madison.

In late 1902, the O'Keeffes moved from Wisconsin to the close-knit neighbourhood of Peacock Hill in Williamsburg, Virginia, where O'Keeffe's father started a business making rusticated cast concrete block. O'Keeffe stayed in Wisconsin attending Madison Central High School until joining her family in Virginia in 1903. She completed high school as a boarder at Chatham Episcopal Institute in Virginia graduating in 1905. In 1917, she visited her brother, Alexis, at a military camp in Texas before he shipped out for Europe during World War I. While there, she created the painting The Flag, which expressed her anxiety and depression about the war.

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"I've been absolutely terrified every moment of my life and I've never let it keep me from a single thing that I wanted to do."

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. "I had to create an equivalent for what I felt about what I was looking at—not copy it."

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“My painting is what I have to give back to the world for what the world gives to me."

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"I’m not a joiner and I’m not a precisionist or anything else."

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In complete disregard of the academic watercolour technique of the time, O'Keeffe painted directly and without any fussy brushing, sponging, or lifting of color. The brush is used to model form and color in a single gesture, without hesitation or hurry.

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She played an important part in the development of modern art in America, becoming the first female painter to gain respect in New York's art world in the 1920s. Her unique and new way of painting nature, simplifying its shapes and forms meant that she was called a pioneer.

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Jimson Weed, White Flower No. 1: O'Keeffe's massive Jimson Weed bloom fetched $44.4m at Sotheby's in 2014, breaking her record. Her goal was to make city dwellers stop and notice nature's beauty.

Red Canna by Georgia O'Keeffe: O'Keeffe's skillful brushwork and unique color blending techniques shine in Red Canna, showcasing vibrant yet restrained forms that seem to pulsate with life. Her mastery of smooth shapes and subtle spatial illusions elevates this portrayal of the red canna blossom.

Blue and Green Music by Georgia O'Keeffe: Inspired by Russian expressionist Vasily Kandinsky's belief in art's spiritual essence, O'Keeffe sought to translate music into visual form, aiming for pure expression devoid of literal meaning.