Georgia O'Keefe and the Calla Lily in American Art, 1860-1940 [Hardcover]

Director Barbara Buhler Lynes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2002

During the second half of the 19th century, the exotic South African calla lily was introduced in the United States, and it began to appear as a subject in American art. The flower became even more popular with artists after Freud provided a sexual interpretation of its form that added new levels of meaning to depictions of it. The calla lily soon became a recurring motif in works by important painters and photographers, particularly Georgia O'Keeffe, who depicted the flower so many times and in such provocative ways that by the early 1930s she became known as "the lady of the lilies". This volume features 54 paintings, photographs and drawings of the calla lily dating from the 1860s to 1940. It includes nine of O'Keeffe's most renowned paintings of the flower as well as works by Imogen Cunningham, Charles Demuth, Marsden Hartley, John La Farge, Man Ray, Joseph Stella and Edward Weston. There is an introduction by O'Keeffe scholar Barbara Buhler Lynes and essays on various aspects of the flower in American art by Charles C. Eldredge and James Moore.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Published in association with the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum

About the Author

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 Raisonne, published by Yale University Press. James Moore is director of The Albuquerque Museum. Charles Eldredge is the Hall Distinguished Professor of American Art and Culture at the University of Kansas and author of Georgia O'Keeffe: American and Modern, published by Yale University Press.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 152 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (October 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300097387
• ISBN-13: 978-0300097382
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 9.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #981,487 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A botanist's zantedeschia is a gardener's calla, May 20, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Georgia O'Keefe and the Calla Lily in American Art, 1860-1940 (Hardcover)

GEORGIA O'KEEFFE AND THE CALLA LILY IN AMERICAN ART, 1860-1940 has more than 50 calla images by 33 artists and photographers. The driving force behind the exhibition, catalogue and book is Barbara Buhler Lynes, Georgia O'Keeffe Museum curator. In one beautifully illustrated, clearly written and nicely organized source, she traces the plant's history, from the limited written record and through art.

Europeans imported the calla in 1731. The name was already in place, from Pliny, according to botanist Jacques Dalechamps. William Wood said the word meant beautiful in Greek. Carolus von Linnaeus, Swedish plant classifier, accepted the name for his "Species plantarum."

But calla palustris already named a northern water plant. So it became richardia. But that was already a rubiaeceae family member. So it became, and stayed, zantedeschia, after Italian botanist and physician Francesco Zantedeschi.

Art has left a better record than writing. For classifying plants encouraged drawing flowers. Especially after the calla was imported from South Africa into the United States, American artists took to its white blooms, spear-headed leaves and elegant silhouette. It became grown, known and painted coast to coast.

Traditionally, it was painted into women's portraits. As recently as 1951, Mexican artist Diego Rivera put the calla into his portrait of Helen N. Starr. A female bullfighter, Starr faced death many times. The calla was also called the perfect mourning flowers, along with azalea, rose and violets. In fact, it was scattered over President Lincoln's casket and Queen Victoria's deathbed.

It was also seen as symbol, and cause, of death. Some scientists believed them to be dangerously poisonous. But that didn't keep southern Californians from growing them outdoors, year-round, as potato-like tasty good in looks and cooking. It was the same with missionaries who had seen pygmies and elephants eating the corms in the Congo.

With all the hype, how could the calla become other than the best known subject in American art? Marsden Hartley and Georgia O'Keeffe were particularly responsible for, but not alone in, that. Not surprisingly, shortly afterwards the calla also became a favorite with advertisers, designers, film-makers and marriage planners. The book perfectly traces this fascinating surge, from our gardens and into almost all of our arts. It reads especially well with Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser's MARSDEN HARTLEY.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Context for Georgia O'Keeffe's Startling Calla Lilies, May 15, 2004

By 

Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 110,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Georgia O'Keefe and the Calla Lily in American Art, 1860-1940 (Hardcover)

Georgia O'Keeffe is famous for her sensual flower paintings. Her reputation is based on the graphic depiction of genitalia among the details and silhouettes of her flowers. Although she declined to acknowledge in public that this is what she was doing, it's unmistakable. In this volume, for example, see plates 33 and 38 for the most unambiguous examples involving calla lilies.

The calla lily presents a unique opportunity to display this aspect of her work since the flower visually exhibits some characteristics similar to both male and female sex organs.

The essays in the book describe how calla lilies came to leave South Africa to make their way to North America and Europe, and how people there responded to the calla lily. The flower was seen as a symbol of women and men, love, purity, and death. A number of painters and photographers chose to work with calla lilies, and 54 of their paintings, drawings and photographs are reproduced in the book. Nine include some of Ms. O'Keeffe's most famous works. Before her startling innovations with calla lilies, the flowers were best known for the treatments that Marsden Hartley did with them, many of which are reproduced in the book.

The essays are primarily of interest for the story behind the famous "sale" of calla lily paintings for $25,000 during the Depression that helped establish Ms. O'Keeffe as a prominent artist in collector circles. It turns out that it was almost a loan, on approval, rather than a sale.

The essays refuse to address the sexuality issue for the works except to note that those who read Freud might see sexual symbolism in the flowers, and that Ms. O'Keeffe claimed no such intent. Balderdash! I graded the book down one star for such intellectual pussyfooting.

I did enjoy the book, though, because although I was familiar with her calla lily paintings, I failed to appreciate how spectacular these paintings were as innovations until I compared them to the treatments by other artists who simply saw calla lilies primarily as a background symbol, as part of a still life, or as an elegant source of soaring curves evoking a spiritual sense.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exquisite., February 11, 2008

By 

Jeanna Mackie "Mackie the Knife" (new york city) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Georgia O'Keefe and the Calla Lily in American Art, 1860-1940 (Hardcover)

The Calla Lilly is one of my favorite flowers and so I was particularly excited when I first saw O'Keefe's rendering of this elegant, voluptuous bloom in all its glory. Even better was the feeling when I stumbled on to this book which is devoted entirely to her art collection of Calla Lilies. So delicate, and yet so strong. O'Keefe is always a fabulous character to read about anyways.