Wanderlust World Wanderlust World Georgia Totto O'Keeffe (1887–1986), the "Mother of American Modernism," synthesized a unique visual language from diverse sources. Her work transcends simple categorization, but five key influences stand out:
O'Keeffe said, "I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way." She magnified flowers (calla lilies, irises, poppies), bones, shells, leaves, clouds, and landscapes to abstract their essential forms. The New Mexico desert (where she lived from 1929, permanently from 1949) with its stark light, vast skies, mesas, and arroyos became her spiritual and artistic home.
She was an early American adopter of pure abstraction (1910s charcoal drawings). Influenced by Wassily Kandinsky (spiritual abstraction) and Arthur Wesley Dow (her teacher, emphasizing "notan"—light/dark harmony, line, color over imitation). She reduced nature to essential shapes, curves, and color relationships.
Her flowers and bones often carry symbolic weight: femininity, sexuality (controversially, per Freud/Stieglitz), mortality, resilience, the cycle of life/death. Influenced by Gustave Moreau and Odilon Redon (Symbolists), she used natural forms as metaphors for inner states.
Living among the Pueblo peoples (San Ildefonso, Santa Clara, Taos), she absorbed their geometric pottery designs, earth-toned palettes, and connection to place. The kiva (ceremonial chamber) form appears in her architectural paintings. She collected Native art and advocated for its recognition.
O'Keeffe fused these into a singular vision: American land, seen through a woman's eyes, rendered with modernist precision and emotional depth.