Georgia O'Keeffe: A Brief History (School Friendly) — Transcript

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1. 0:08Georgia O'Keeffe was an American artist
2. 0:10who is often referred to as the mother
3. 0:12of American modernism. She is best known
4. 0:14for her large paintings of flowers,
5. 0:16skyscrapers, and the landscapes of New
6. 0:19Mexico.
7. 0:20Georgia O'Keeffe was born on November
8. 0:2215th, 1887 on a dairy farm in Wisconsin.
9. 0:26She knew from a young age that she
10. 0:28wanted to be an artist and her mother
11. 0:29encouraged Georgia to take art lessons.
12. 0:32Growing up on a farm helped to fuel
13. 0:33Georgia's fascination with nature,
14. 0:36something that would be reflected in her
15. 0:37art throughout her life.
16. 0:39As a young woman, Georgia studied art in
17. 0:40Chicago and New York, but she grew
18. 0:42frustrated that what she was being
19. 0:44taught did not allow her to express her
20. 0:46own ideas of what art could look like.
21. 0:48That's when Georgia O'Keeffe discovered
22. 0:50abstract art, artwork that doesn't try
23. 0:52to show the world as it really is, but
24. 0:53uses shapes and colors in unusual ways
25. 0:56to express ideas and emotions. This new
26. 0:58way of painting was exciting to Georgia
27. 1:00and she began to experiment with it.
28. 1:02She later said, "I found I could say
29. 1:04things with color and shapes that I
30. 1:05couldn't say in any other way, things I
31. 1:07had no words for."
32. 1:10In 1915, Georgia made a series of
33. 1:12abstract charcoal drawings and sent them
34. 1:14to a friend. Without Georgia's
35. 1:16permission, her friend took these
36. 1:17drawings to famous photographer Alfred
37. 1:19Stieglitz who displayed them in his art
38. 1:21gallery.
39. 1:22At first, Georgia was very angry that he
40. 1:24had done this, but they soon became
41. 1:26friends.
42. 1:27At that time in history, being a
43. 1:29professional artist was not considered
44. 1:30an option for women, but Alfred was so
45. 1:32impressed with her work that in 1917, he
46. 1:35hosted Georgia's first solo art
47. 1:37exhibition at his gallery. Georgia and
48. 1:39Alfred eventually fell in love and in
49. 1:411924, they got married.
50. 1:43The two lived in New York City at the
51. 1:45top of one of the tallest skyscrapers of
52. 1:46the time and Georgia O'Keeffe started
53. 1:48painting the city that she saw from her
54. 1:49window.
55. 1:50She once remarked that you could not
56. 1:52paint New York as it is, but rather as
57. 1:54it felt and Georgia used a distinctive
58. 1:56style to create dramatic paintings.
59. 1:59At this time, Georgia O'Keeffe also
60. 2:00began painting large close-ups of
61. 2:02flowers, the art she is perhaps most
62. 2:04famous for. She would take small details
63. 2:06of the flower and put them onto large
64. 2:08canvases, magnifying them and
65. 2:09transforming them into something
66. 2:11abstract with bright colors and bold
67. 2:13brushstrokes. In 1946, the Museum of
68. 2:16Modern Art in New York held an
69. 2:18exhibition of Georgia's work, and a few
70. 2:19years later, Georgia left New York to
71. 2:21live in New Mexico, a place she had
72. 2:23visited regularly over the past 20
73. 2:25years, but her home. Just as she painted
74. 2:28the city around her before, Georgia
75. 2:29started painting the desert of New
76. 2:30Mexico and the things she found there,
77. 2:33often including bones in her paintings.
78. 2:35Many people associate bones with death,
79. 2:37but Georgia found them to be beautiful,
80. 2:39and she was fascinated by the small
81. 2:40details she'd see in them, just like
82. 2:42with the flowers. She fell in love with
83. 2:44New Mexico's unusual landscape and would
84. 2:46spend hours in the hot desert painting
85. 2:48what she saw. Georgia felt particularly
86. 2:50inspired by the Pedernal Mountain,
87. 2:53which she painted over and over.
88. 2:55She once said, "It is my private
89. 2:57mountain. It belongs to me. God told me
90. 3:00if I painted it enough, I could have
91. 3:01it."
92. 3:03Georgia O'Keeffe died in 1986
93. 3:05at the age of 98.
94. 3:07She continued to paint in her old age,
95. 3:10producing more than 2,000 pieces of art
96. 3:12in her lifetime. Even when she began to
97. 3:14lose her eyesight, she would still make
98. 3:16art with the help of an assistant,
99. 3:17describing to them what she wanted to
100. 3:19create. She said, "I can see what I want
101. 3:22to paint. The thing that makes you want
102. 3:24to create is still there."
103. 3:26Georgia O'Keeffe was a free spirit who
104. 3:28changed the world of art by pushing
105. 3:30creative boundaries and expressing
106. 3:31herself in new and distinctive ways. She
107. 3:34opened the door for female artists and
108. 3:36inspired those that came after her to
109. 3:37never be ashamed to see things
110. 3:39differently or to try new things.
111. 3:41Georgia herself said it best, "I've been
112. 3:43absolutely terrified every moment of my
113. 3:45life, and I've never let it keep me from
114. 3:47doing a single thing I wanted to do."
115. 3:59Mhm.