Georgia O'Keeffe

Georgia O’Keeffe’s striking and highly personal vision was a major contribution to American Modernism. Despite her traditional training, she began to experiment with abstract drawings under the influence of Arthur Wesley Dow. After meeting Alfred Stieglitz in 1916 (whom she would later marry), she went on to form part of his radical artistic circle in New York. In the 1920s, she produced dramatic Precisionist paintings of urban architecture and skyscrapers. However, she is most famous for her flower paintings, in which she creates almost-abstract designs by enlarging close-up botanical details. After 1929, the harsh desert landscape of New Mexico repeatedly features in her work – as do the objects found there, such as cow skulls and bones. Having settled in New Mexico permanently in 1949, she continued to experiment into old age, producing a series of aerial views inspired by her frequent plane travel. Famously her pictures often feature thinly veiled sexual allusions.