Georgia O'Keeffe: A Life

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An Incredible Biography

A Beautiful and Engaging Tribute to a Brilliant Artist

Georgia O'Keeffe: A Life
Roxana Robinson
Manufacturer: HarperCollins Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

O'Keeffe, Georgia | ( M-O ) | Artists, A-Z | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
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Full Bloom: The Art and Life of Georgia O'Keeffe

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O'Keeffe's O'Keeffes: The Artist's Collection

ASIN: 0060159650

Book Description

Georgia O'Keeffe is arguably the 20th century's leading woman artist. Coming of age along with American modernism, her life was rich in intense relationships -- with family, friends, and especially noted photographer Alfred Stieglitz. Her struggle between the rigorous demands of love and work resulted in extraordinary accomplishments. Her often-eroticized flowers, bones, stones, skulls, and pelvises became extremely well known to a broad American public. The New York Times Book Review named this richly detailed and moving biography a Notable Book of the Year.

Customer Reviews:

An Incredible Biography.......2001-07-23

"A Life" is the best book on painter Georgia O'Keeffe available. Every moment in Georgia's life is written about with painstaking detail. Nothing is missed. From her relationship with Alfred Steiglitz and his entourage from "291" to her intimate relationship with sculptor Juan Hamilton. I can't say enough how amazing this book is and how enjoyable it is to read.

A Beautiful and Engaging Tribute to a Brilliant Artist.......2000-04-15

Georgia O'Keeffe's life was one lived with courage and beauty and Robinson does her justice by writing this beautiful and engaging biography. The author delves into O'Keeffe's life and the passion of her work by describing her family history, her evolution as an artist, and perhaps more important to O'Keeffe, her evolution toward becoming her true self. The extra and vital layer that adds even more depth to this biography is Robinson's description of the art scene and the philosophies of art circulating in early 20th century New York.

This book would be of interest not only to those who enjoy O'Keeffe's work but also to those who are trying to become themselves, those who are interested in the history of art in America, or those who like to read for the sake of feeling beautiful words flowing through their mind.

Book Description

Georgia O'Keeffe has dominated twentieth-century American art and proved herself one of its most original talents. Jan Garden Castro's The Art & Life of Georgia O'Keeffe offers the most complete account of both the artist's fascinating private life and her extraordinary career.

In 1917 Alfred Stieglitz, pioneer photographer and impresario, organized O'Keeffe's first one-person exhibition, the last show at his famous gallery "291." She also became the subject of many of his finest photographic works and the center of his personal and professional world for the rest of his life. Her acceptance into the Stieglitz group brought her in touch with a wide circle of creative individuals, including Ansel Adams, Arthur Dove, John Marin, and Charles Demuth, to name a few. While learning from these colleagues, O'Keeffe also maintained a fierce independence from them. She had a certain mystique as a woman and an artist, and many of her contemporaries immortalized her in their work. She was the first woman artist whose face and life were of great interest to the public.

Georgia O'Keeffe's career has spanned much of the history of modern art in America. Here are more than a hundred paintings, many rarely exhibited or reproduced, photographs of O'Keeffe at various stages of her life and of the landscapes that inspired her, and a text richly documented with letters and interviews. This material, combined with Jan Castro's insightful criticism, reveals O'Keeffe's legacy as an artist and the force of her intriguing personality.

Customer Reviews:

The Art and Life of Georgia O'Keeffe.......2005-05-25

SUMMARY: Georgia O'Keeffe's life, and quite a number of her paintings, are presented here in this fairly large paperback book, along with some of the people and subjects that shaped this great contemporary artist.
POSITIVES: One of the best compilations of Georgia O'Keeffe's artwork that I've seen for awhile, it not only shows her, her life events, and the work she created, but the people who influenced her. You are brought along a journey through O'Keeffe's life, and also what can be gathered through her paintings that reflected her own inner qualities. Best of all in this book, are the countless artistic pieces that she has produced, some photographs by Stieglitz, and other important information that is very valuable in any contemporary art collection.
NEGATIVES: However, the author, despite her intense research and beautiful compilations, does not appear to have put much effort into coordinating her pictures and the explanations that go with them. The organizational aspects of this book are definitely not its best quality, dropping my opinion when it comes to giving it a fair review. I also think you can do better when it comes to finding a book with a comprehensive review of O'Keeffe's life and work.
AGE RANGE: 10 and up for comprehension, but much older for enjoyment. (It could be quite boring)

Happy Reading!

A Successful Look at O'Keeffe.......2004-01-12

Surely it is difficult to sift through an artist's life and write about only the meaningful moments/events. Castro does a good job with this, including what is important and omitting the tedious. Her art criticism is simple and easy to understand and her approach seems balanced. My major complaint with the book is that while she may discuss a painting on page 15, it may well appear on page 200 - with no note or appendix making it possible to find the plate.

GOT TO HAVE BOOK!.......2003-11-01

This book is insperational with amazing insights in her art work and lifestyle. if you want to find out about this amazing woman and her art work you should buy this book!

New to the Details of O'Keeffe.......2000-02-21

Having always been familiar with her work, this book provided me with a good synopsis of her life and her art. The book has a good layout, and a "tasty" palette of her art and color to feed on.

Not Really...........2000-02-16

If you've been an O'keeffe fan for a long time this book will lack of new and interesting facts about her life and art. It is a "good" book, but it works only for people that have just discovered O'keeffe's greatness.

Full Bloom: The Art and Life of Georgia O'Keeffe

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Excellent information regarding Georgia's life
Tremendous and important detail lacking in other biographies
Gave me a new appreciation for O'Keeffe's art
More than you ever wanted to know about Georgia O'Keeffe
More than you ever wanted to know about Georgia O'Keeffe

Full Bloom: The Art and Life of Georgia O'Keeffe
Hunter Drohojowska-Philp
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0393327418

Book Description

"The definitive life of O'Keeffe."—Hilton Kramer, Los Angeles Times

Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986) was one of the most successful American artists of the twentieth century: her arresting paintings of enormous, intimately rendered flowers, desert landscapes, and stark white cow skulls are seminal works of modern art. But behind O'Keeffe's bold work and celebrity was a woman misunderstood by even her most ardent admirers. This large, finely balanced biography offers an astonishingly honest portrayal of a life shrouded in myth.

When she was still unknown as an artist, O'Keeffe married Alfred Stieglitz, twenty-three years her senior and well established as a pioneer in art photography. The relationship was physically and intellectually passionate, but Stieglitz was a man of the world. Through the author's access to previously unavailable materials—including interviews with Dorothy Norman, Alfred Stieglitz's longtime paramour—we are offered new knowledge about O'Keeffe's defining relationships and the effect of her husband's infidelity. Driven to a nervous breakdown by the Norman affair, O'Keeffe relocated and redefined herself in New Mexico, where she created her unforgettable signature paintings. 16 pages of black-and-white illustrations, 32 color plates.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent information regarding Georgia's life.......2007-03-03

Well written book and excellent research. Enjoyed very much.

Tremendous and important detail lacking in other biographies.......2006-06-20

Detailed and thoughtful, and a riveting read if you really want to understand this artist's life. After reading dozens of books and articles about O'Keeffe during the course of my own research on New York-inspired artwork, I didn't think another O'Keeffe biography was necessary. But I'm grateful I found this book. I learned so much more about this artist--about her friendships, her travels beyond New York and the Southwest, and her abstract works.

Gave me a new appreciation for O'Keeffe's art.......2005-06-28

I never really liked O'Keeffe's more abstract paintings until I read this biography. Now I can look at them with an improved understanding of what they mean and what she managed to accomplish for female artists everywhere. It's equally nice to see the artist as a person with her own foibles and nuances. The author has done a remarkable job here.

More than you ever wanted to know about Georgia O'Keeffe.......2005-06-06

Hunter Drohojowska-Philp is a sound writer, one who obviously does her research inexhaustibly, and with a background in art criticism she also speaks with authority and an informed eye. But she does go on....

For those who want to know more about the idiosyncrasies of this American idol then this is the resource of choice. We learn more about the frustrations, self doubt, love affairs, and general personality quirks than in all the other biographies combined. We also learn about each painting in depth which I suppose is like a verbal catalogue raissonne and for that we should be thankful.

It is just that with all great artists not everything they make is of show quality and it is this inclusion of all of the odds and major ends of O'Keeffe's work that borders on tiresome. It is with a good degree of relief that the last page of this nearly 500-page opus is reached.

Hunter Drohojowska-Philp obviously holds Georgia O'Keeffe in a realm close to Valhalla and that is all well and good. She writes with vigor and determination and certainly informs us of the 'full bloom' of her title. In the end this is a valuable volume for the archives, but not a book to recommend for the casual reader who has already grown visually fatigued with the Santa Fe posters of poppies, ox skulls, and datura flowers. Grady Harp, June 05

More than you ever wanted to know about Georgia O'Keeffe.......2005-05-25

Hunter Drohojowska-Philp is a sound writer, one who obviously does her research inexhaustibly, and with a background in art criticism she also speaks with authority and an informed eye. But she does go on....

For those who want to know more about the idiosyncrasies of this American idol then this is the resource of choice. We learn more about the frustrations, self doubt, love affairs, and general personality quirks than in all the other biographies combined. We also learn about each painting in depth which I suppose is like a verbal catalogue raissonne and for that we should be thankful.

It is just that with all great artists not everything they make is of show quality and it is this inclusion of all of the odds and major ends of O'Keeffe's work that borders on tiresome. It is with a good degree of relief that the last page of this nearly 500 page opus is reached.

Hunter Drohojowska-Philp obviously holds Georgia O'Keeffe in a realm close to Valhalla and that is all well and good. She writes with vigor and determination and certainly informs us of the 'full bloom' of her title. In the end this is a valuable volume for the archives, but not a book to recommend for the casual reader who has already grown visually fatigued with the Santa Fe posters of poppies, ox skulls, and datura flowers. Grady Harp, May 05

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wonderful gift
Outstanding book from an outstanding exhibition

Georgia O'Keeffe: The Poetry of Things
Elizabeth Hutton Turner
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0300079354

Book Description

This stunning book is the first in-depth exploration of Georgia O`Keeffe`s unique contribution to still-life painting. It features beautiful full-page reproductions of some sixty of her paintings, related photographs, essays that discuss the sometimes surprising formative influences on O`Keeffe`s approach to objects, and an illustrated chronology of her life.

Customer Reviews:

wonderful gift.......2000-04-22

I sent this book as a gift, based on the glowing review on this page. My donee/friend wrote: "What a wonderful surprise and delight the O'Keefe book has brought me today! It is indeed something very special, with elegant color illustrations, plus many photos from various times of her life, and biographical details all through the text. There is a wonderful photo of her (by Ansel Adams) -- she wears a dark sweater, and is sitting, sketching, at the rocky entrance to what may be a cave --- and all of her design ideas seem to be there in the photo: her own interesting form, contrasts of dark and light, austerity yet beautiful rhythms....I had no idea what a pathfinder she was, going her own road by interpreting objects in an entirely personal way. Everything has her magic touch. The color plates are excellent." I have her permission to send these comments to you.

Outstanding book from an outstanding exhibition.......1999-09-03

This is the companion catalog to the O'Keeffe exhibition at the Phillips gallery in Washington, DC, and is a wonderful volume on O'Keeffe whether or not you were fortunate enough to see this exhibition. What impressed me most about the exhibition (and the book) is how intelligently it was put together. It examines O'Keeffe's development as an artist by tracking both her philosphy and her influences, and some rarely shown works were chosen to represent this in the exhibition (and are reproduced in the book). Of all the books on O'Keeffe that I've read, and of all the exhibitions I've seen of her work, this one by far does the best job of explaining both the artist and her work.

Georgia O'Keefe and the Calla Lily in American Art, 1860-1940

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Context for Georgia O'Keeffe's Startling Calla Lilies
A botanist's zantedeschia is a gardener's calla

Georgia O'Keefe and the Calla Lily in American Art, 1860-1940
Barbara Buhler Lynes
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0300097387

Book Description

During the second half of the nineteenth century, the exotic South African calla lily was introduced in the United States, and it began to appear as a subject in American art. The flower became even more popular with artists after Freud provided a sexual interpretation of its form that added new levels of meaning to depictions of it. The calla lily soon became a recurring motif in works by important painters and photographers, particularly Georgia O'Keeffe, who depicted the flower so many times and in such provocative ways that by the early 1930s she became known as "the lady of the lilies."

This gorgeous book features 54 paintings, photographs, and drawings of the calla lily dating from the 1860s to 1940. It includes nine of O'Keeffe's most renowned paintings of the flower as well as works by Imogen Cunningham, Charles Demuth, Marsden Hartley, John La Farge, Man Ray, Joseph Stella, and Edward Weston. The book includes an introduction by esteemed O'Keeffe scholar Barbara Buhler Lynes and essays on various aspects of the flower in American art by Charles C. Eldredge and James Moore.

This book is the catalogue for an exhibition at the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum from October 3, 2002 to January 14, 2003, which will then travel to the Albuquerque Museum from February 1 to May 1, 2003 and the Muscarelle Museum of Art in Williamsburg, Virginia, from May 31 to August 10, 2003.

Customer Reviews:

Context for Georgia O'Keeffe's Startling Calla Lilies.......2004-05-16

Georgia O'Keeffe is famous for her sensual flower paintings. Her reputation is based on the graphic depiction of genitalia among the details and silhouettes of her flowers. Although she declined to acknowledge in public that this is what she was doing, it's unmistakable. In this volume, for example, see plates 33 and 38 for the most unambiguous examples involving calla lilies.

The calla lily presents a unique opportunity to display this aspect of her work since the flower visually exhibits some characteristics similar to both male and female sex organs.

The essays in the book describe how calla lilies came to leave South Africa to make their way to North America and Europe, and how people there responded to the calla lily. The flower was seen as a symbol of women and men, love, purity, and death. A number of painters and photographers chose to work with calla lilies, and 54 of their paintings, drawings and photographs are reproduced in the book. Nine include some of Ms. O'Keeffe's most famous works. Before her startling innovations with calla lilies, the flowers were best known for the treatments that Marsden Hartley did with them, many of which are reproduced in the book.

The essays are primarily of interest for the story behind the famous "sale" of calla lily paintings for $25,000 during the Depression that helped establish Ms. O'Keeffe as a prominent artist in collector circles. It turns out that it was almost a loan, on approval, rather than a sale.

The essays refuse to address the sexuality issue for the works except to note that those who read Freud might see sexual symbolism in the flowers, and that Ms. O'Keeffe claimed no such intent. Balderdash! I graded the book down one star for such intellectual pussyfooting.

I did enjoy the book, though, because although I was familiar with her calla lily paintings, I failed to appreciate how spectacular these paintings were as innovations until I compared them to the treatments by other artists who simply saw calla lilies primarily as a background symbol, as part of a still life, or as an elegant source of soaring curves evoking a spiritual sense.

A botanist's zantedeschia is a gardener's calla.......2003-05-21

GEORGIA O'KEEFFE AND THE CALLA LILY IN AMERICAN ART, 1860-1940 has more than 50 calla images by 33 artists and photographers. The driving force behind the exhibition, catalogue and book is Barbara Buhler Lynes, Georgia O'Keeffe Museum curator. In one beautifully illustrated, clearly written and nicely organized source, she traces the plant's history, from the limited written record and through art.

Europeans imported the calla in 1731. The name was already in place, from Pliny, according to botanist Jacques Dalechamps. William Wood said the word meant beautiful in Greek. Carolus von Linnaeus, Swedish plant classifier, accepted the name for his "Species plantarum."

But calla palustris already named a northern water plant. So it became richardia. But that was already a rubiaeceae family member. So it became, and stayed, zantedeschia, after Italian botanist and physician Francesco Zantedeschi.

Art has left a better record than writing. For classifying plants encouraged drawing flowers. Especially after the calla was imported from South Africa into the United States, American artists took to its white blooms, spear-headed leaves and elegant silhouette. It became grown, known and painted coast to coast.

Traditionally, it was painted into women's portraits. As recently as 1951, Mexican artist Diego Rivera put the calla into his portrait of Helen N. Starr. A female bullfighter, Starr faced death many times. The calla was also called the perfect mourning flowers, along with azalea, rose and violets. In fact, it was scattered over President Lincoln's casket and Queen Victoria's deathbed.

It was also seen as symbol, and cause, of death. Some scientists believed them to be dangerously poisonous. But that didn't keep southern Californians from growing them outdoors, year-round, as potato-like tasty good in looks and cooking. It was the same with missionaries who had seen pygmies and elephants eating the corms in the Congo.

With all the hype, how could the calla become other than the best known subject in American art? Marsden Hartley and Georgia O'Keeffe were particularly responsible for, but not alone in, that. Not surprisingly, shortly afterwards the calla also became a favorite with advertisers, designers, film-makers and marriage planners. The book perfectly traces this fascinating surge, from our gardens and into almost all of our arts. It reads especially well with Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser's MARSDEN HARTLEY.

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Very revealing look at Georgia O'Keefe

O'Keeffe: The Life of an American Legend
Jeffrey Hogrefe
Manufacturer: Bantam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

O'Keeffe, Georgia | ( M-O ) | Artists, A-Z | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0553380699
Release Date: 1999-11-30

Book Description

One of this century's most beloved and celebrated artists, Georgia O'Keeffe transmitted her most intimate feelings onto her canvases. But the details of her private life were zealously guarded, leaving the world to wonder: What was the inspiration, and the impetus, for her sexually charged flower paintings? What was the nature of her relationship with her much older husband, photographer Alfred Stieglitz? Why did she lie about her past and hide herself from her public?

Journalist and author Jeffrey Hogrefe discloses the answers to these questions and more in O'Keeffe, a richly detailed biography that illuminates much of the mystery and intrigue that surround Georgia O'Keeffe, and finally reveals the real woman behind the legend. Hogrefe's encounter with the ninety-three-year-old artist and with Juan Hamilton, the young man she loved in her final years, provided him with unique insights into her private world, as well as into Hamilton's own controversial relationship with O'Keeffe during the last fourteen years of her life.

Her acerbic personality, her unconventional lifestyle, and her struggles as an artist and a woman are brought to life in this definitive biography.

Customer Reviews:

Very revealing look at Georgia O'Keefe.......2000-07-16

A pretty substantial biography of artist Georgia O'Keefe. Covers her entire life and sheds enlightenment on all the factors that led to her hermitic life near Taos. While sympathetic to O'Keefe, this book does indulge in, or rather addresses, topics that O'Keefe would never discuss herself. Stories of her famous temper and lesbianism are shared with interviews from close friends. Parts of the book feel like a tell-all National Enquirer article, but the author does a good job of keeping it all in context, after all it must not have been easy for O'Keefe to become a celebrity symbol of feminism. Not sure how this book would compare to other O'Keefe bios as I haven't read any other ones, but this is a very enjoyable and informative book.

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Was Georgia really so bad?
digs for dirt at the expense of art, but is a fun read

O'Keefe: The Life of an American Legend
Jeffrey Hogrefe
Manufacturer: Bantam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

General | Artists, A-Z | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0553565451
Release Date: 1994-01-01

Customer Reviews:

Was Georgia really so bad?.......2004-09-06

It's incredible how much less fun a biography is to read when the author seems to hate his or her subject. Why would they choose to spend hours and hours of research on somebody if they don't think that the person is worth it? It must be some sort of competition.
I found myself frequently thinking back to the Frida Kahlo bio written by Hayden Herrera. In that, the biographer's admiration for the artist was infectious, and was based on her body of work, which was illustrated throughout the book. But in this case, there are hardly any reproductions, because the writer concentrates on gossip and O'keeffe's shortcomings.
However, the biography is very thorough and addictive in a guilty pleasure sort of way.

digs for dirt at the expense of art, but is a fun read.......2002-06-29

This is a good book, but the author does not seem to like either O-Keeffe or her husband Stieglitz. He covers their art a bit but without enthusiasm and instead seems to target their personal foibles and sexual peccadillos, which were many and indeed strange. This is valid reporting and ceratinly covers a necessary part of the story, but after a while it gets boring. However, in many sections the author speculates in strange ways on details of their intimate life that cannot be known, such as positiing that the origin of O'Keeffe's "discreet lesbianism" came from cryptically documented (hence essentially unprovable) sexual molestation as a child. If you want to look at the art, you have to go elsewhere. I enjoyed this as a vacation book but did not learn much from it beyond gossip.

Been There, Done That: Advice from Women in the Know

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Been There, Done That: Advice from Women in the Know
Georgia O'Keeffe
Manufacturer: Peter Pauper Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0880881038

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Art & Life of Georgia O Keeffe
Crown
Manufacturer: Crown
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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THE ART & LIFE OF GEORGIA O'KEEFFE

Manufacturer: Crown
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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