BY THE MID-1920S, THE PAINTER Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986) was a figure of note in New York. Her large close-up paintings of flowers had caused a frisson and were seen both as metaphors for the female body and, in their nose-tothe-petal simplicity, examples of a new sort of Modernism — a form of non-abstract abstract art.
During her career, she made some 200 flower paintings and when commentators likened them to female genitalia she demurred: no, they were just flowers, she said. She went further to cut off invasive psycho-sexual speculation: “I hate flowers,” she claimed, “I paint them because they’re cheaper than models and they don’t move.”
Whatever the truth of this disingenuous statement, her admirers do love her flowers. In 2014, her Jimson Weed/White Flower No1 (1932) fetched $44.5…
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The Critic (Digital) - 1 Issue, July 2023