In 1928, Georgia O’Keeffe is already a recognised artist who creates huge close up paintings of flowers, among them, Oriental Poppies (1927).

Her comment is based on her quote “When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it’s your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else.”

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In January, O’Keeffe is exhibited at the Intimate Gallery founded by her husband, the art dealer Alfred Stieglitz who strongly supports her work and who was key in the progress of her career.

 

In her review of the exhibition in the New York Times on January 22, 1928, the art critic Elisabeth Cary mentions “it may strike one as a little marvellous that themes so visionary should prove amenable to treatment so precise and so boldly affirmative”. One “can hardly remain unmoved by the sheer loveliness of her colors, shapes and patterns.”

 

Sources:

New York Times, January 22, 1928

Georgia O’Keeffe Museum