Georgia O'Keefe

Georgia O'Keefe

Georgia O'Keefe is a famous American painter who painted beautiful flowers and landscapes. But she painted these images in such a way that many people believed she was portraying sexual imagery. "O'Keefe's depictions of flowers in strict frontality and enlarged to giant scale were entirely original in character . . . the view into the open blossoms evoked an image of the female psyche and invited erotic associations." (Joachimides 47) O'Keefe denies these allegations and says that she "magnified the scale of the flower only to ensure people would notice them." (Haskell 203) O'Keefe's artwork was misinterpreted because of cultural prejudice, her non-traditional lifestyle, and gender bias art criticism. But despite these accusations, Georgia O'Keefe's artwork was not based on sexuality.

O'Keefe was born on November 15, 1887 in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. Her parents were dairy farmers and throughout her childhood she lived on her family's farm. Georgia had a rough childhood growing up on the farm. Her mother did not especially like her and when she was not busy ignoring her, she treated her very badly. Although her mother disliked her, Georgia's father loved her unconditionally and gave her the love her mother deprived her of. But he also molested her, a tramatizing drawback that would follow her for the rest of her life. Although she knew what her father was doing was wrong, she refused to admit this to herself because he was the only loved one she truly had. So, when Georgia's father left, she was heartbroken (Hogrefe 14). "The abandonment she must have felt when he left the family had repercussions for the rest of her life as she refused to get close to many of her male companions . . .her closest male friends were homosexual . . . and she spurned men who sought sexual intimacy with her." (15) After her father left, Georgia was sent to live with her aunt who punished her frequently by secluding her in her room and often by slapping Georgia in the face. When she was a teenager she was sent to an all girl's boarding school. This is where she was finally able to receive art classes and build on her talent. Georgia's mother did not allow her to be cultured, because it was forever trapped in the ways of the late 1800's and if you were a lady, it was not worth it (17).

Georgia O'Keefe was brought up in a very untraditional environment and many critics looked at her bleak childhood and made it a reason for her to create sexual paintings (when in fact it just made Georgia a stronger person). When she began creating beautiful artwork in school and was being commended by other teachers and students, she gained an incredible sense of self worth and put her painful childhood in the back of her mind. (19) She grew up to be a very strong, independent person and she did not care if she was judged, as long as she liked who she was. As a result of her father leaving when she was young, she felt that males were not good enough for her and she developed a strong sense of feminism. In fact, for awhile, Georgia explored her sexuality and dated predominantly women for a significant part of her life. This factor did effect her painting, but not in a sexual way. She painted images that were 'close ups', allowing you to see deep into them and to be close to them. She yearned to be close to someone but was afraid to be hurt again. Georgia's non-traditional lifestyle did affect her life, but did not force her to create sexual female images. "It may be more accurate to read her drawings as intimations of a less literal and more profound view of reality." (Peters 29)

Georgia grew up in a time where people still had little respect for women. A woman's role was to stay home and be a housekeeper. They had no self-worth until they were married. So, when women started to get jobs just like their husbands or lived their lives without a husband, people were shocked and most looked down upon them. Georgia was 'untraditional' in that way. She remained unmarried till late in her womanhood and secluded herself from people as much as possible (Hogrefe 15). She was constantly drawing and painting and was completely content being alone and fully herself. But, one day when she viewed Alfred Stieglitz's work in a gallery and met him soon after, her closed heart was opened. Georgia could relate his work to hers and felt what he felt. While they were together, Alfred found beauty in Georgia's body and took many nude photographs of her. (Eisler 53) Critics were astounded and they then, of course, criticized Georgia's work as being sexual because of the work Alfred had publicized of her body. "He had introduced her to the public through photographs, many of which were intensely erotic, and then transferred this sexual identity to her paintings". (The American Century Art and Culture 203) Many people also looked down on her because Alfred and Georgia were living together, but were not married. This was not traditional in this time and the fact that she was rebelling against society in this way only added to the criticism of her artwork. Her unique lifestyle convinced critics that her artwork must be shameful just like the way she lived her life. But her artwork was "not only intrinsically American but very clearly the products of female sensibility, not sexual at all." (Hughes 393)

Besides her untraditional lifestyle and cultural prejudice, Georgia O'Keefe's artwork was also misinterpreted because of gender bias art criticism. The art critics who denounced Georgia's art were strictly men. Women at this time did not have the stature in society to critique art and be listened to. Most critics assumed that a woman that has a unique outlook and definite ideas about realizing her vision through her artwork should not cross the boundary into an exclusive status reserved only for men. These male critics ripped her apart, even after she denied that her work was based on sexuality. But the critics of her artwork were not only outsiders. Her husband also felt that Georgia's artwork expressed sexual imagery. He described her work as "the pure expression of womanhood - understood as Nature and Womb . . .[her artwork] reveals the intimacies of love's juncture, with the purity and the absence of shame that lovers feel in their meeting." (Haskell 203) Her work was pure and beautiful and did express intense emotion, but it was not sexual and vulgar in the way some critics described it. And just because she was a woman, who were true minorities in the art world at this time, her work was severely criticized because she was different. "O'Keefe was O'Keefe,