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I found that I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say in any other way — things that I had no words for.

Georgia O'Keeffe, New York Sun, 1922

Art

The story behind the card

Georgia O'Keeffe, later known for her large paintings of flowers and of the New Mexico desert, said this in an interview with the New York Sun in December 1922. The breakthrough she was describing came in 1915: while teaching art in South Carolina, she set aside much of her academic training and began a series of abstract charcoal drawings. Her friend Anita Pollitzer showed them to the photographer and gallery owner Alfred Stieglitz in New York without asking her first; Stieglitz exhibited some of them in 1916 and began writing to her. He became her dealer and, in 1924, her husband.

Türkçe oku
Başka hiçbir yolla söyleyemediğim şeyleri, kelimelere dökemediğim şeyleri renklerle ve biçimlerle söyleyebildiğimi fark ettim.
Georgia O'Keeffe, New York Sun, 1922

Georgia O'Keeffe daha sonra dev çiçek resimleri ve New Mexico çölünü anlatan tablolarıyla ünlenecekti. Bu sözü Aralık 1922'de New York Sun gazetesine verdiği bir söyleşide söyledi. Anlattığı dönüm noktası 1915'teydi: Güney Carolina'da resim öğretmenliği yaparken akademik eğitiminden gelen alışkanlıkların çoğunu bir yana bıraktı ve füzenle bir dizi soyut resim çizmeye başladı. Arkadaşı Anita Pollitzer bu çizimleri, ona sormadan New York'ta fotoğrafçı ve galeri sahibi Alfred Stieglitz'e gösterdi. Stieglitz 1916'da bazılarını sergiledi ve O'Keeffe'e mektup yazmaya başladı. Zamanla eserlerini satan galerici, 1924'te de eşi oldu.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Georgia O'Keeffe
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