Georgia O'Keeffe and the Camera: The Art of Identity

From her appearance as a provocative young artist in Alfred Stieglitz’s photographs to her depiction as a grande dame of the art world in silkscreens by Andy Warhol, Georgia O’Keeffe captivated the media with her image of a woman as bold as her art. This beautifully illustrated book tells the stories behind the portraits of one of the 20th century’s foremost American painters.

O’Keeffe’s professional and personal relationships with the leading photographers of her time come to light, as does her ability to shape public perceptions of her career. Stieglitz first created photographs of his protégée posing in front of her abstract artworks as a manifestation of a sexually liberated woman. O’Keeffe later redefined her image, sometimes working with photographers at her homes in New Mexico, where she emerged as a rugged individualist among the animal bones and gnarled trees that she often painted.

This publication brings together for the first time photographs by Stieglitz, Arnold Newman, John Loengard, Todd Webb, and others—many of which probe fascinating tensions between abstractionism and realism in O’Keeffe’s art. In addition, a selection of O’Keeffe’s works chronicles the span of her long career.  

Susan Danly is curator of graphics, photography, and contemporary art at the Portland Museum of Art. Her books includeThomas Eakins and the Photograph. Barbara Buhler Lynes is curator at the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum and the Emily Fisher Landau Director of the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Research Center. She is the author of Georgia O'Keeffe: Catalogue Raisonné, published by Yale University Press.

Georgia O'Keeffe and the Camera: The Art of Identity showed at the PMA June 12 — September 7, 2008. 

 Hardcover. 68 color and 76 duotone illustrations. 122 pages.