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Georgia O'Keeffe: Canyon Suite

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Georgia O'Keeffe always said that she was impatient with visual clutter; that she wanted to get rid of details that got in the way of real meanings; and that abstract painting could deal with concepts, emotions, and ideas. The GEORGIA O'KEEFFE: CANYON SUITE watercolors are in fact among the earliest U.S. abstract art painted directly from nature. They include abstract images of natural phenomena, such as "Abstraction, Black and Blue," with lightning bolts and rain sheets through darkened sky and ground, "First Light on the Plains," with light haloing through the fuchsia and indigo night, "Gray Abstraction (Train/Desert)," with former motion stilled in trails against the sky, and "Light Coming on the Plains," with Japanese brushed color tones dragged spectacularly down by gravity and water; recognizable subject matter, such as "Red House/Fence & Door" and her rare "Standing Nude," with the body invaded by the background colors and therefore like one of Auguste Rodin's blurred watercolor nudes; and traditional landscapes, such as "Blue Hills," "Dark Mesa," and "Purple Mountain." Editor Barbara J. Bloemink's text gives helpful background to understanding the artist and the color plates, and to reading Benita Eisler's O'KEEFFE AND STIEGLITZ and Roxana Robinson's GEORGIA O'KEEFFE. The same interest in colors and shapes, but differently treated, shows through FRIDA KAHLO's art, particularly in the books by Hayden Herrera, Raquel Tibol, and Martha Zamora.