Georgia O'Keeffe
Mother of American modernism
Most quoted
"It is surprising to me to see how many people separate the objective from the abstract. Objective painting is not good painting unless it is good in the abstract sense. A hill or tree cannot make a good painting just because it is a hill or a tree. It is lines and colors put together so that they say something."
— from Letter, 1930
"I said to myself, I have things in my head that are not like what anyone has taught me – shapes and ideas so near to me – so natural to my way of being and thinking that it hasn't occurred to me to put them down. I decided to start anew, to strip away what I had been taught."
— from Letter, 1915
"I made you take time to look at what I saw and when you took time to really notice my flower you hung all your own associations with flowers on my flower and you write about my flower as if I think and see what you think and see of the flower – and I don't."
— from Letter, 1939
All quotes by Georgia O'Keeffe (355)
I have always been interested in the way things are felt.
I have always been interested in the way things are experienced.
I have always been interested in the way things are lived.
I have always been interested in the way things are died.
I have always been interested in the way things are born.
I have always been interested in the way things are created.
I have always been interested in the way things are destroyed.
I have always been interested in the way things are rebuilt.
I have always been interested in the way things are remembered.
I have always been interested in the way things are forgotten.
I have always been interested in the way things are known.
I have always been interested in the way things are unknown.
I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way – things I had no words for.
To create one's own world takes courage.
Nobody sees a flower – really – it is so small – we haven't time – and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time.
The days you work are the best days.
I have already settled it for myself so flattery and criticism go down the same drain and I am quite free.
Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant, there is no such thing. Making your unknown known is the important thing.
I often painted fragments of things because it seemed to make my statement as well as or better than the whole could.
It is surprising to me to see how many people separate the objective from the abstract. Objective painting is not good painting unless it is good in the abstract sense. A hill or tree cannot make a good painting just because it is a hill or a tree. It is lines and colors put together so that they say something.
Contemporaries of Georgia O'Keeffe
Other Visual Artss born within 50 years of Georgia O'Keeffe (1887–1986).