From a Day with Juan IV

Georgia O'KeeffeWW-1977-029405

1977·Oil on canvas·121.9 × 91.4 cm (48 × 36 in.)

<p>Georgia O’Keeffe painted this canvas in response to seeing the Washington Monument on a trip to Washington, DC, in October 1976 with her assistant Juan Hamilton. She depicted it as an abstract form, a solid white block that dominates the composition, leaving narrow triangles of blue sky on either side. One can envision the 90-year-old artist craning her neck to take in the monumental shape, drawn to its strict geometries, as she toured the Mall on a brilliant fall day.</p>

Catalogue

Year: 1977
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 121.9 × 91.4 cm (48 × 36 in.)
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Artist: Georgia O'Keeffe

Artist

Georgia O'Keeffe

Painting

One of the most successful artists of the 20th century, Georgia O’Keeffe enjoyed a long and varied artistic career in which she introduced many new aesthetic perspectives and approaches in Modernism. Born in Wisconsin in 1887, she studied at the Art Institute of Chicago beginning in 1905 before taking teaching position in South Carolina, Virginia and Texas. She moved to New York City in 1918 at the age of 31 where she became part of the artistic milieu of her future husband photographer Alfred Stieglitz. In these years, she became fascinated with the fast pace of city life and produced paintings highlighting the city’s soaring skyscrapers as symbols of the modern world.

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