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 things that are not alive.
I have always been interested in the things that are not dead.
I have always been interested in the things that are not here.
I have always been interested in the things that are not there.
I have always been interested in the things that are not now.
I have always been interested in the things that are not then.
I have been working like mad for a week—and I am so tired I can hardly stand up. But I have done some things that I like very much.
I want to paint the world as I see it, not as others see it.
I wish I could paint the way a cow eats grass.
I've been absolutely terrified every moment of my life—and I've never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do.
The unexplainable thing in nature that makes us feel the world is bigger than we are.
I have always been afraid of things. But I have never let them stop me from doing what I wanted to do.
I hate flowers—I paint them because they're cheaper than models and they don't move.
I believe that the only thing that will save the world is the bringing together of the heart and the mind.
I often think of you and wonder what you are doing. I hope you are well and happy.
I am going to paint what I see, not what I am told to see.
I have always been very much alone. I have always been very much myself.
I wish I could tell you how much I like your work. It is so strong and so true.
The world is so wonderful and so beautiful. I want to paint it all.
I am not a woman who paints. I am an artist who happens to be a woman.
Contemporaries of Georgia O'Keeffe
Other Visual Artss born within 50 years of Georgia O'Keeffe (1887–1986).