O'Keeffe On Paper (National Gallery of Art Publications)
The world knows Georgia O'Keeffe for her monumental paintings of flowers, shells, and sun-drenched New Mexico landscapes. She also worked on a smaller scale in watercolor, pastels, and charcoal, experimenting with themes and ideas. Fifty-five of her drawings are illustrated inO'Keeffe on Paper, which accompanies an exhibition organized by the National Gallery of Art in Washington and the O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe. The images work on several levels: viewing what at first seem brightly colored, jewel-like abstractions, with titles such asPond in the WoodsandPortrait of Paul Strand, we suddenly become aware of more complex, realistic forms. Witty and accessible, O'Keeffe's drawings remind us to recognize significance and beauty in our daily surroundings. The book's supporting essays are well written and useful. The first, which places O'Keeffe in the context of her teachers and colleagues, is an excellent survey of the early-20th-century American avant-garde; the second explores the evolution of O'Keeffe's ideas, developing her youthful question, "If one can only reproduce nature, and always with less beauty than the original, why paint at all?" The final essay is a detailed analysis of the materials she used. An extra dimension is given by photographs of O'Keeffe at work and some illuminating pictures by artists who influenced her. Reflecting a statement by the critic John Canaday quoted early in the book--"In a drawing artists give us at full strength, but with minimum elaboration, the essence of whatever they have to say"--the images inO'Keeffe on Paperare deceptively simple but very satisfying.--John Stevenson