A Visit to the Georgia O'Keefe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico

Georgia O’Keefe Museum

Santa Fe, NM

Written by Cathy Breslaw

Georgia O'Keefe       Black Holyhock Blue Larkspur     oil on canvas      1930

Visiting the Georgia O’Keefe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico is an opportunity to experience the work and career of one of the most significant American artists of the twentieth century.  In one of her writings, O’Keefe (1887-1986) stated: “Colors and shapes make a more definite statement than words” and her work consistently expresses this notion whether it be the abstractions of the New York skyscrapers of her early career or on toward the later part of her career and life expressing the exquisite beauty of the mountains, flowers and natural world in New Mexico.  Though she is known for her large scale flower paintings, O’Keefe’s work is much broader and focused on abstractions of the natural world that are a distillation of shapes, forms and colors that evoke a strong sense of place and reveal the impact that her immediate environment had on her and in cultivating her art practice.  O’Keefe’s life is the story of a woman artist driven to create and  forge her own interpretations of the world around her, living life on her own terms, creating abstracted landscapes inspired by nature.  Her prolific works of oil paintings, sculptures, watercolors and drawings are presented in the museum’s intimate galleries, each representing a period of her work, along with a video exploring her life. The museum also includes educational programs, workshops, and  coordinated visits to Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu, O’Keefe’s home and studio.

Tony Vaccaro    Georgia O'Keefe with "Pelvis Series, Red and Yellow   Chromagenic Print      1960

Georgia O'Keefe    Red Maple    Oil on Canvas    1922

Georgia O'Keefe    Horse's Skull with White Rose   Oil on Canvas   1931