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born 1887

Today, pioneering painter Georgia O'Keeffe is one of the world's best loved artists. 

But, there was a time when the avant-garde Georgia was determined to give up her charcoals + oils because she felt limited by the realist bent of the art world. At 21, the girl who grew up on a Wisconsin dairy farm took a gig as a commercial artist in Chicago + didn't put brush to canvas for 4 years. In 1912, some brilliant art educators helped Georgia reclaim her calling ~ to help usher in a new age of art. Often called the "mother of American modernism," Georgia kept producing the lush, intimate still-lifes and evocative landscapes she's known for into her 90s.

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Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Collection shop
Georgia O'Keeffe and Her Houses: Ghost Ranch and Abiquiu shop
My Faraway One: Selected Letters of Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz shop
Portrait of an Artist: A Biography of Georgia O'Keeffe shop
Through Georgia's Eyes shop
Georgia O'Keeffe shop

her quotes

all quotes by Georgia O'Keeffe (12)

"I seem to be waiting for something to happen—I've tried not to think because there are so many things that make me feel so exquisitely raw inside."

Georgia O'Keeffe to Alfred Stieglitz {via My Faraway One: Selected Letters of Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz} | july 1916

"How nice it is that you are."

Georgia O'Keeffe to Alfred Stieglitz {via My Faraway One: Selected Letters of Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz} | july 1916

"The plains—the wonderful great big sky—makes me want to breathe so deep that I'll break."

Georgia O'Keeffe to Alfred Stieglitz {via My Faraway One: Selected Letters of Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz} | september 1916

"Tonight I'd like to paint the world with a broom—and I think I'd like great buckets of color . . . lots of red—vermillion—and I don't want to be careful of the floor—I just want to splash."

Georgia O'Keeffe to Alfred Stieglitz {via My Faraway One: Selected Letters of Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz} | november 1916

"I know now that most people are so closely concerned with themselves that they are not aware of their own individuality. I can see myself, and it has helped me to say what I want to say—in paint."

Portrait of an Artist | 1922

"It is only by selection, by elimination, and by emphasis that we get at the real meaning of things."

The New York Sun | 1922

"Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant—there's no such thing. Making your unknown known is the important thing—and keeping the unknown always beyond you…"

Georgia O’Keeffe: Art and Letters | august 1923

"I have not wanted to be anything but kind to you—but there is nothing to be kind to you if I cannot be me."

Georgia O'Keeffe to Alfred Stieglitz {via My Faraway One: Selected Letters of Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz} | july 1929

"When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it's your world for the moment. I wanted to give that world to someone else."

Her Worlds Are Many | may 1946

"Where I was born and where and how I have lived is unimportant. It is what I have done with where I have been that should be of interest."

Georgia O'Keeffe | 1976

"Filling a space in a beautiful way. That's what art means to me."

ARTnews | december 1977

"In a way—nobody sees a flower—really—it is so small—we haven't time—and to see takes time like to have friend takes time."

An Enduring Spirit: The Art of Georgia O'Keeffe | january 1984

quoteurs we recommend...

Monique Péan
eco-jewelry designer
Frida Kahlo
painter | artistic icon
Rose O'Neill
feminist artist + Kewpie inventor

for further reading about Georgia O'Keeffe:

  • Quotabelle profile
  • Georgia O'Keeffe

curated with care by Alicia Williamson & Angela Willard {march 2015}

Georgia O'Keeffe, 1919

Georgia was both life partner + muse for photographer Alfred Stieglitz ~ a major player in the New York art scene who helped put Georgia on the map. This is one of hundreds of portraits Alfred took of the artist whose fame quickly surpassed his own. She posed in the nude for many of them...inspiring a fuss when they were exhibited in a 1921 retrospective of his work. The erotic images seem intimate, but, for her part, Georgia felt Alfred's work "had nothing to do me personally."

Alfred Stieglitz | public domain

At Ghost Ranch

Georgia first visited New Mexico in 1929 ~ traveling to Taos with her friend Rebecca Strand where they were put up by socialite-intellectual Mabel Dodge Luhan. In 1934, she discovered the gorgeously situated Ghost Ranch and immediately took a house on the property. Georgia spent time there every year, drawing inspiration from the landscape that translated into some of her most famous work. She didn't relocate permanently to the area until after her husband Alfred {who usually stayed in New York} passed away in 1949. Her ranch was isolated, but it attracted many distinguished guests ~ including Joni Mitchell, Allen Ginsberg + Ansel Adams.

Ron Cogswell | CC BY 2.0

Georgia O'Keeffe Museum

Santa Fe's Georgia O'Keeffe Museum opened in 1997 ~ 11 years after the artist's death. The modern adobe structure designed by famous architect Richard Gluckman {whose previous projects include the Whitney + Andy Warhol museums} is home to the largest permanent collection of Georgia's work...1,149 pieces! It is also the only museum in the US dedicated to a female artist.

John Phelan | CC BY 3.0 | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_O%27Keeffe_Museum#/media/File:Georgia_O%27Keeffe_Museum,_Santa_Fe_NM.jpg

Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1

Alfred was a champion for Georgia's art + famously brokered a deal {that fell through} to sell 6 of her paintings at the highest rate offered to any living American artist ~ $25,000. Both would have been shocked to know that Georgia would break the record for a female artist at auction in 2014 when this iconic flower painting sold for more than $44 million.

Sotheby's