Georgia O’Keeffe knew from an early age that she wanted to be an artist. Born in Wisconsin at the end of the 19th century, she studied art in both Chicago and New York – however it was not until she met Arthur Dow, her art teacher in South Carolina, that she would find her own unique expression. A friend showed O’Keeffe’s works to a NY gallery owner, Alfred Stieglitz, who quickly saw the brave, vibrant energy of her art (he would also later become Georgia’s husband and fruitful collaborator). Through Stieglitz’s gallery, O’Keeffe developed a respectable following. By the 1920s, Georgia O’Keeffe was producing some of her finest work and establishing herself as an important American modern artist (at a time when women artists had little to no recognition). When one thinks of Georgia O’Keeffe’s painting, one thinks of brilliant, sensual flower still-lifes under a magnifying lens. When her husband died in 1946, O’Keeffe would move permanently to Taos, New Mexico where she filled canvases with its dramatically unique landscapes made more compelling under the artistic eye of O’Keeffe (clouds, cultural objects, animal bones, adobe structures) – which is how she is so strongly associated with the American Southwest. Georgia O’Keeffe still stands out as one of the greatest and most influential modern American artists.
