Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA

March 2024

Georgia O’Keeffe’s paintings, especially those of large, abstract flowers, are some of my favorite works of art. As an educator of both art history and 2D design, her works are inspiring. It has been my long-time desire to make a pilgrimage to her home turf in New Mexico and experience the scenes she painted again and again! That dream became reality in spring 2024.

This is one of a three-part blog which focuses on my quest to embrace Georgia O’Keeffe in her favorite place: New Mexico.

Georgia O’Keeffe Adventure in 3 Parts!

• The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico; Includes Bio on O’Keeffe.
• Georgia O’Keeffe’s Home in Abiquiu, New Mexico (coming soon)
• Georgia O’Keeffe at Ghost Ranch, just 15 miles from Abiquiu (coming soon)

This blog shares highlights of my long-anticipated visit to the official Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico in the spring of 2024.

O’Keeffe and Me!

Georgia O’Keeffe’s larger-than-life flowers are some of my favorite paintings! I have sought out and viewed O’Keeffe’s artwork in museums around the world. Her style is easily recognizable and always makes me smile!

My hometown Minneapolis (Minnesota) Institute of Art owns several including one of my favorite versions of “Pedernal.” (More on her fascination with Pedernal below.)

A vibrant “Oriental Poppies,” a prized possession of the Weisman Art Museum (WAM) at the nearby University of Minnesota, is another favorite. (I’ve written a blog on WAM, see Related Posts below)

“Sky Above Clouds IV,” is her gigantic painting of huge, puffy white clouds against a blue sky. I vividly recall the first time I experienced it! It looms atop the landing of a broad staircase at the Chicago (Illinois) Art Institute. At 8′ x 24′ (96″ x 288″) it is her version of the sky and clouds above her Ghost Ranch home.

Who is Georgia O’Keeffe?

Georgia O’Keeffe is one of the 20th century’s most significant artists.

• First, she was an American artist in a time when American artists were just gaining recognition in the field of mostly European art.
• Second, she successfully moved into Abstract painting during the age of Realism and French Impressionism.
• Third, she did so as one of the few recognized female artists of her time. In the early 20th century and before, females could teach art, but not practice art as a career! Not so Georgia!

Born in 1887, she grew up in rural Wisconsin much like the renowned 20th century American architect, Frank Lloyd Wright. Interestingly, they both ended up loving and living in the Southwest USA; she in New Mexico, he in Arizona. Both were artistic innovators who made a major impact on the art world of the 20th century.

O’Keeffe’s training began with the study of traditional painting techniques. Her unique personal artistic language developed as she began experimenting with abstraction while teaching art in West Texas. While she continued with abstraction throughout her life, her subjects and focus changed with her environment.

The direction of her art – and her life – first changed dramatically when a friend shared some of her highly abstract drawings to a New York art dealer and renowned photographer, Alfred Stieglitz. He was impressed both with O’Keeffe’s work – and her! Not only was he the first to exhibit and heavily promote her work in 1915, he would eventually become her husband.

By the mid-1900s, O’Keeffe was recognized as one of America’s most successful and important artists. She became known for her paintings of New York skyscrapers, at that time, an American symbol of modernity. (See my blog on this painting in Related Posts below)

During this time, she also painted her equally radical depictions of flowers, my favorite! The O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe had lots of her flower paintings for me to enjoy!

O’Keeffe’s diverse geographical perspective can be seen the ever-changing progression of her art throughout her life. What began in rural Midwestern Wisconsin and moved to the stark skyscrapers of New York City, ultimately ended up in the vast deserts and rolling hills of New Mexico, her favorite.

In 1929, O’Keeffe embarked on the first of many trips to northern New Mexico. She was inspired by its natural beauty, architecture and communities. Her art immediately took a new, defining direction. She made it her permanent home in 1949, remaining there until in death in 1986 at the age of 98.

O’Keeffe Photos by Stieglitz

We can track part of O’Keeffe’s life by the fabulous photos Stieglitz shot of her over the years.

Interestingly, there are only a few photographs in which she is portrayed engaged in her artistic work. This one, a favorite of mine, is with watercolor paints. It was taken by Stieglitz at his family summer home in Lake George, New York.

Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Georgia O’Keeffe has been well known in America and abroad for many decades. The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum’s collections include nearly 150 paintings. It owns hundreds of works on paper: pencil and charcoal drawings, pastels and watercolors.

The collections also include personal property, items such as her beloved rocks and bones to clothing and paintbrushes. The depth and personality of the museum is seen in the significant documents and photographs relating to the artist’s life and times. I’ve included examples of these near the end of this blog

O’Keeffe in New York (1920s)

In 1918, O’Keeffe moved from Texas to New York to join Alfred Stieglitz, her future husband. This marked a dramatic shift for her. Here she developed a new style. O’Keeffe’s changing environments throughout her life influenced her changing styles and subjects as well.

She increasingly focused on nature but in ways that were abstracted and often magnified in unusual ways. She moved away from her earlier experiments with charcoal and watercolors to paint primarily in oils.

“Anything“

Lake George, New York, was a place of inspiration for O’Keeffe. She spent summers and autumns here at the Stieglitz family home.

The ever-changing and colorful Adirondacks inspired her new approach to her portrayal of the natural world through both representation and abstract imagery. During her time here, she created more than 200 works, including this one. “Anything.”

“Trees in Autumn“

The Stieglitz Lake George home was a welcoming place. The natural beauty was inspirational for O’Keeffe. Always filled with family and friends, the constant parade of people was overwhelming and distracting for her. She discovered her sanctuary in an old outbuilding she called the “shanty.” She adopted this as her peaceful, quiet place to paint without distractions. “Trees in Autumn” is a shanty painting which displays the vibrant autumn maples for which the Adirondacks are famous.

“Red Maple“

The forests around Lake George formed a colorful and dense backdrop, especially in the autumn when the maple leaves turned to flaming reds and yellows as seen in “Red Maple.”

Influence of Photography on O’Keeffe’s Art

O’Keeffe was introduced to the modernist principles in photography by her New York friends. This social circle included prominent photographers: her husband, Alfred Stieglitz, and friends Paul Strand and Edward Steichen.

These modernist principles included cropping and manipulating images. As if seen through a camera lens, she magnified the flower’s form, applying these principles to the composition, and emphasizing its petals and buds. This coincides with my idea of always viewing her large flowers as seen through the eyes of a bumble bee or hummingbird!

“Petunia No. 2”

“Petunia No. 2” was created from this influence. It is one of O’Keeffe’s first large-scale renderings of a flower, a theme dominating her early career.

These large-scale, realistic but abstract flowers, are by far my favorite subjects of O’Keeffe’s paintings.

O’Keeffe’s Work & World Expands (1930s)

In 1929, O’Keeffe made the first of many trips to New Mexico. It eventually became her permanent home in 1949 after the death of her husband. She was inspired by the stark landscape and local cultures. They were so different from New York and the Midwest.

O’Keeffe also began to travel internationally. She painted the places she visited: the mountain peaks of Peru and Japan’s Mount Fuji. Sea shells were a favorite subject during her time in the Bahamas and Bermuda.

“Bella Donna” (Hawaii)

In 1939, she traveled to Hawaii where she painted and sketched her on-going fascination with the flowers, trees, mountains and natural landscapes. She brought home many sketches, photographs and paintings including this stunning painting of the highly toxic angel’s trumpet/belladonna.

“Pink Ornamental Banana“

This striking oil painting is of a banana plant set upon a pink/lavender background, reminds me of images created in some of her clouds in the sky paintings.

“Two White Shells One Black Shell/Three Shells” (Caribbean)

O’Keeffe loved painting shells. She is recorded as saying “I have picked up shells along the coast of Maine and farther south, in the Bermudas and Bahamas I found conch shells along the pure sandy beaches. Each shell was a beautiful world in itself.” (Quote printed on placard at museum)

O’Keeffe in New Mexico (1930s, 1940s . . .)

Skulls & Roses

Upon her first visit to northern New Mexico in 1929, the natural beauty, architecture, and communities, forged a new, defining direction in her art. A recurring theme was combining animal skulls and flowers together in one painting.

During one of her early visits, the Southwest was in the midst of a devastating drought, part of the “dust bowl” droughts of the 1930s. The landscape was dotted with sun-bleached skulls and bones of livestock which had perished. Along with silk flowers similar to those she saw on graves and roadside crosses, O’Keeffe filled a barrel with bones she had collected. Back in New York, they became objects in many of her paintings.

“Horse’s Skull with White Rose” (New Mexico)

“Horse’s Skull with White Rose” is one of O’Keeffe’s paintings using the intriguing combination of bleached bones and flowers.

“Black Mesa landscape, New Mexico / Out Back of Marie’s II“

O’Keeffe spent summers with friends in Taos, New Mexico. Here she painted a series of views of the vibrantly hued hills across the Rio Grande. This one is a scene “out back” of the home of her friend, author and socialite Marie Garland.

O’Keeffe & Pedernal

O’Keeffe eventually settled and built a home in a settlement called “Ghost Ranch.” An isolated location 15 miles from the village of Abiquiu, it provided her with the solitude she sought, open sky and ever-changing subject matter. One such subject was the imposing view of Cerro Pedernal (Flint Mountain). Pueblos, Indigenous and Hispano communities had for thousands of years held it a sacred and significant site.

From the front yard of her home in Ghost Ranch, O’Keeffe had an unobstructed, perfect view Pedernal. Her love, respect and lifetime captivation for this mountain is seen in her numerous depictions of it.

“Pedernal”

“Pedernal…from Ranch I”

My first introduction to O’Keeffe’s beloved Pedernal was on a visit to Mia, my hometown Minneapolis Institute of Art. A common motif in her later work, she combined the mountain with her inclusion of sun-bleached animal bones. In this version of Pedernal, she has framed the mountain within the opening of an abstracted bone, hanging from the porch of her Ghost Ranch home.

“Pedernal…from Ranch I” was the original source of my desire to visit Pedernal in person!

O’Keeffe and the Juniper Tree

O’Keeffe created “Stump in Red Hills” during her first year in her Ghost Ranch home. Ghost Ranch and its surrounding arid landscape served as inspiration for her work for the rest of her life.

“Stump in Red Hills“

In “Stump in Red Hills,” this juniper stump hovers over the flame-hued hills.

O’Keeffe discovered and claimed this dramatically contoured chunk of old juniper during one of her explorations of the Ghost Ranch landscape. She brought it home with her as a reminder of both form and place. This painting, “Stump in the Red Hills,” was inspired by this piece of wood that she found so visually compelling.

“Rooted in Place…”

The painting, “Stump in Red Hills,” and its inspiration, the gnarly juniper stump, were a mesmerizing centerpiece display at the museum during our visit.

“Gerald’s Tree I” – the Juniper

Juniper trees, commonly referred to as cedar in New Mexico, provided on-going subject matter for O’Keeffe. She was fascinated with their twisting lines and irregular shapes. One particular juniper tree took on a personal meaning to her with the occasion of a visitor to her Ghost Ranch property in 1937.

Our Ghost Ranch guide shared this fun story!

O’Keeffe became acquainted with Irish author Gerald Herd during his travel to New Mexico. Eventually, he was a guest staying at her property. He loved to hike and wander in the desert around her home. The name of this painting is evocative of that stay.

“Gerald’s Tree I” captures the dead juniper tree, under which O’Keeffe discovered the footprints of her guest, Gerald. O’Keeffe later wrote: “I guess that he must have been dancing around the tree before I started to paint it. So I always thought of it as Gerald’s Tree.“

Our Ghost Ranch guide told us that if we turn the painting sideways, we can see the shadow of Gerald dancing!

O’Keeffe Museum: Making a Life… Her Life beyond her Paintings

I enjoyed the museum as it went beyond her paintings and art. The collections include personal items ranging from her fascinating collections of rocks and bones, her clothing styles and jewelry, her paint and paintbrushes and documents and photographs of her life and times.

O’Keeffe’s Farm-to-Table Lifestyle

While O’Keeffe considered herself a painter first of all, her creativity extended to her life as a whole. The museum explores some of her other creative outlets. This is seen in her farm-to-table living at her Abiquiu Home and Studio as well as her lifelong attention to detail in style and how she dressed.

Included in the exhibit are items to paint a broader picture of O’Keeffe and her passions. This includes her Stetson hat, her Alexander Calder pin, and a Carol Sarkisian pattern seen in her wrap (coat/dress/belt).

This brass pin of O’Keeffe’s initials, was custom made by her friend, 20th century abstract sculptor, Alexander Calder.

Her infamous black, flat-topped hat was made in the United States by Stetson. It originated in Central and South America where it was a favorite of gauchos/cowhands.

O’Keeffe’s tenacity and undying passion to create carried into her later years. By the mid-1970s, her failing eyesight and macular degeneration forced her to abandon oil painting on her own. She was able to continue to paint and create art with her close friend, confident and assistant, Juan Hamilton. With determination, she drew on her vivid imagination and her favorite motifs from memory.

At age 90, she observed “I can see what I want to paint. The thing that makes you want to create is still there.”

I cannot imagine what it would be like to lose one’s vision and still create visual art. O’Keeffe is an inspiration!

O’Keeffe’s Sculpture

I have always associated O’Keeffe with her paintings. Her friend, Hamilton, a sculptor, introduced O’Keeffe to clay and taught her to work with it. Here she could use her hands and her sense of touch to “see” her creations! I love sculpture and was excited to learn about her art in this medium!

One of her sculptures keep recurring in my visits to the museum and her home: “Abstraction,” in different sizes and colors.

“Abstraction”

“Abstraction” is a lacquered bronze sculpture I saw in both white and black and various sizes. In my online research, I discovered photos of ones so large that, when O’Keeffe posed next to them, some were nearly twice as tall as she!

Here are ones I viewed on this trip.

“Abstraction” in white in the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe.

“Abstraction” in black in the sculpture garden of the art museum down the street from the O’Keeffe museum

“Abstraction” in white in O’Keeffe’s Abiquiu home studio.

“Abstraction” in white in the patio enclosure at O’Keeffe’s Abiquiu home.

Visit

I enjoyed the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. It was well laid out as it chronicled her life and legacy through her art. The placards by each artwork or photograph were helpful in the small and big picture. They are the source of much of the details in this blog.

Sequence: I’m glad I visited her Abiquiu home and Ghost Ranch first, before the museum. It gave me perspective on the places behind her art and experiences. I could relate to the pieces with greater appreciation and understanding.

The Gift Shop was nice. Interestingly, the O’Keeffe foundation has prohibited her art from going commercial and printed on clothing and mugs, etc. My quest for a tee-shirt with one of her flowers has never been met; I could never find one…now I know why!

Two days is a good time for the whole O’Keeffe experience. We spent two nights at the Abiquiu Inn (great place!) with Day One doing a morning tour of her Abiquiu home and afternoon at Ghost Ranch with one of their several options of Georgia O’Keeffe tours (I booked through Viator Tours). Day Two we went into Santa Fe to the Museum (pre-booked a reservation on the museum website) and the other Santa Fe offerings. Add additional time if you wish to spend more time exploring Santa Fe or other Ghost Ranch experiences.

Sources

• Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Placards and other info with personal visit by Cher B and Skip B. 23 March 2024
• Georgia O’Keeffe Home, Abiquiu, New Mexico. On-site tour guide information during personal visit by Cher B and Skip B. 22 March 2024
• Ghost Ranch O’Keeffe Tour guide information. 22 March 2024
• okeeffemuseum.org
• Photos (unless otherwise noted) were taken on-site by Cher B or Skip B. 22 and 23 March 2024

Related Posts

O’Keeffe’s art has been included in many of my blogs over the years. See Related Posts below for Sunflowers, Morning Glories, The City (NYC) is Dark, and her Oriental Poppies at the Weisman Art Museum.