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 been working very hard. I have been painting all day.
I feel as though I am just beginning to see the world.
I want to make people see the world as I see it.
I am going to paint the desert. I am going to paint the mountains.
I have been very happy here. I have been very much alone.
I want to paint the feeling of the desert.
I have always loved the wide open spaces.
I am going to paint the bones. I am going to paint the skulls.
I have always been fascinated by death.
I want to paint the silence of the desert.
I have always been drawn to the things that are strong and simple.
I am going to paint the sky. I am going to paint the clouds.
I have always loved the light.
I want to paint the feeling of the light.
I have always been interested in the way things grow.
I am going to paint the trees. I am going to paint the leaves.
I have always loved the colors of nature.
I want to paint the feeling of the colors.
I have always been drawn to the things that are alive.
I am going to paint the flowers. I am going to paint the plants.
Contemporaries of Georgia O'Keeffe
Other Visual Artss born within 50 years of Georgia O'Keeffe (1887–1986).