Georgia O'keefe – Two Calla Lilies on Pink (1928)

Exhibition poster with the work, Two Calla Lilies on Pink (1928), by the American artist, Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986). At a time when few Europeans had actually seen O'Keeffe's pictures, in 2002 Louisiana presented a selection that spanned O'Keeffe's entire output with the exhibition, O'Keeffe's O'Keeffes - The Artist's Collection. An exhibition that could be seen as Georgia O'Keeffe's artistic self-portrait.

O'Keeffe's images are known to many—as is the myth about her: the aristocratic, independent woman in the New Mexico desert. Her pictures radiate the special persistent concentration that surrounds them. They insist on the emotional power of the simple motif.

When Georgia O'Keeffe paints flowers, she is of course related to centuries of flower painters. But she is different anyway. She blows up the flowers. Blows up the bouquet and focuses unrestrained on the detail. Macro and micro flow together in a new space of color, rhythm and composition. It is a flower—and yet a painting.

O'Keeffe's pictures are elaborate. She is phenomenally meticulous and her pictures are not spontaneous. She uses sketches and mixes colors endlessly before going to the canvas. She wants to arrive at a very specific image. So she works in series. Repeating petals, seashells, clouds, branches, leaves, mountains.

For Georgia O'Keeffe, it's all about bringing out a feeling. You may not be able to depict the feeling directly, hold it, but you can set it in motion by repetition, as with a musical theme.