Short biography of georgia okeeffe for children
About Georgia O’Keeffe
"I had to create an equivalent for what I felt about what I was looking at – not copy it."
Biography
Georgia O’Keeffe is one of the most significant artists of the 20 century, renowned for her contribution to modern art. Born on November 15, 1887, the second of seven children, Georgia Totto O’Keeffe grew up on a farm near Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. By the time she graduated from high school in 1905, O’Keeffe had determined to make her way as an artist. She studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Students League in New York, where she learned the techniques of traditional painting. The direction of her artistic practice shifted dramatically four years later when she studied the revolutionary ideas of Arthur Wesley Dow. Dow offered O’Keeffe an alternative to established ways of thinking about art. She experimented with abstraction for two years while she taught art in West Texas. Through a series of abstract charcoal drawings, she developed a personal language to better express her feelings and ideas.
O’Keeffe mailed some of these highly abstract drawings to a friend in New York City. Her friend showed them to Alfred Stieglitz, the art dealer and renowned photographer, who would eventually become O’Keeffe’s husband. He became the first to exhibit her work, in 1916.
By the mid-1920s, O’Keeffe was recognized as one of America’s most important and successful artists, known for her paintings of New York skyscrapers—an essentially American symbol of modernity—as well as her equally radical depictions of flowers.
In the summer of 1929, O’Keeffe made the first of many trips to northern New Mexico. The stark landscape and Native American and Hispanic cultures of the region inspired a new direction in O’Keeffe’s art. For the next two decades she spent most summers living and working in New Mexico. She made the state her permanent home in 1949, three years after Stieglitz’
Georgia O'Keeffe
(1887-1986)
Who Was Georgia O'Keeffe?
Artist Georgia O'Keeffe studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Students League in New York. Photographer and art dealer Alfred Stieglitz gave O'Keeffe her first gallery show in 1916, and the couple married in 1924. Considered the "mother of American modernism," O'Keeffe moved to New Mexico after her husband's death and was inspired by the landscape to create numerous well-known paintings. O'Keeffe died on March 6, 1986, at the age of 98.
Quick Facts
FULL NAME: Georgia Totto O'Keeffe
BORN: November 15, 1887
BIRTHPLACE: Sun Prairie, Wisconsin
DEATH: March 6, 1986
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Scorpio
Early Life
O'Keeffe was born on November 15, 1887, on a wheat farm in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. Her parents grew up together as neighbors; her father Francis Calixtus O'Keeffe was Irish, and her mother Ida Totto was of Dutch and Hungarian heritage. Georgia, the second of seven children, was named after her Hungarian maternal grandfather George Totto.
O'Keeffe's mother, who had aspired to become a doctor, encouraged her children to become well-educated. As a child, O'Keeffe developed a curiosity about the natural world and an early interest in becoming an artist, which her mother encouraged by arranging lessons with a local artist. Art appreciation was a family affair for O'Keeffe: her two grandmothers and two of her sisters also enjoyed painting.
O'Keeffe continued to study art, as well as academic subjects at Sacred Heart Academy, a strict and exclusive high school in Madison, Wisconsin. While her family relocated to Williamsburg, Virginia in 1902, O'Keeffe lived with her aunt in Wisconsin and attended Madison High School. She joined her family in 1903 when she was 15 and already a budding artist driven by an independent spirit.
In Williamsburg, O'Keeffe attended Chatham Episcopal Institute, a boarding school, where she was well-liked and stood out as an individual, who dressed and acted d Born in 1887, Georgia O'Keeffe was an American artist who painted nature in a way that showed how it made her feel. She is best known for her paintings of flowers and desert landscapes. She played an important part in the development of modern art in America, becoming the first female painter to gain respect in New York's art world in the 1920s. Her unique and new way of painting nature, simplifying its shapes and forms meant that she was called a pioneer. The artwork below is a landscape. Can you see how she has simplified the shapes of the hills in the painting? As well as the shapes of the landscape itself, O'Keeffe was fascinated by the bones and skulls she found in the desert landscapes near where she lived. She said: 'To me they are as beautiful as anything I know…The bones seem to cut sharply to the center of something that is keenly alive on the desert even tho’ it is vast and empty and untouchable.' Do you agree? Why do you think she painted the bones so large in front of the landscape? Georgia knew from the age of 12 that she wanted to be an artist. She went to art school but what she was taught there didn’t seem relevant to the way she wanted to paint. Then in 1912 she discovered the revolutionary ideas of an artist and designer called Arthur Wesley Dow. He emphasised the importance of composition – which means how you arrange shapes and colours. As O’Keeffe explained: ‘His idea was, to put it simply, fill a space in a beautiful way’. This was a light-bulb moment for her and from then on she began to experiment with shapes, colours and marks. Georgia met other artists who, like her, were experimenting with abstract art. Art in the 1920s was exciting. Artists didn’t just want to show how something looked but were using colours, shapes and brush-marks in unexpected ways to express mean Quick facts for kids Georgia O'Keeffe O'Keeffe in 1918, photograph by Alfred Stieglitz Georgia Totto O'Keeffe Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, U.S. Santa Fe, New Mexico, U.S. Georgia O'Keeffe (November 15, 1887 – March 6, 1986) was a very famous American artist. She's known for her bold and beautiful paintings, especially her close-up pictures of flowers, New York skyscrapers, and the landscapes of New Mexico. Her art is unique and has inspired many people over the years. Georgia was born in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, the second of seven children. Her family moved around a bit, and she spent time in Virginia and eventually went to art school in Chicago and New York City. She wasn't always sure what she wanted to do, trying different things like teaching before fully committing to art. She studied at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1905 to 1906, and then at the Art Students League of New York from 1907 to 1908. These schools helped her develop her skills, but she also learned a lot by experimenting on her own. She was fascinated by different art styles and techniques, always trying to find her own unique way of expressing herself through her art. In 1912, she took a summer course at the University of Virginia, and then she taught art in Texas and South Carolina. Teaching gave her a chance to think about art and how to share her passion with others. She also continued to develop her own artistic style during this time. One of the important thi Who is Georgia O'Keeffe?
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Georgia O'Keeffe facts for kids
Born
(1887-11-15)November 15, 1887Died March 6, 1986(1986-03-06) (aged 98) Education School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Columbia College
Teachers College, Columbia University
University of Virginia
Art Students League of New YorkKnown for Painting Movement American modernism, Precisionism Spouse(s) Awards National Medal of Arts (1985)
Presidential Medal of Freedom(1977)
Edward MacDowell Medal (1972)Early life and artistic beginnings (1887-1916)