Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Collection [Hardcover]

Barbara Buhler Lynes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 20, 2007

Georgia O’Keeffe is one of the great artists of the twentieth century, and one of the best loved. The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico, holds the largest collection of her work, her archives, and her houses at Ghost Ranch and in Abiquiu.

This lavishly illustrated volume presents a magnificent selection of O’Keeffe’s paintings, drawings, and sculptures, all reproduced in faithful color. It also offers a generous portfolio of photographs—some previously unpublished—by O’Keeffe; many by Alfred Stieglitz, her husband and mentor; and others by such renowned photographers as Ansel Adams, Eliot Porter, Philippe Halsman, Yousuf Karsh, and Todd Webb.

In addition, there are a number of works by American Modernist painters who painted in New Mexico—George Bellows, Thomas Hart Benton, and Edward Hopper, among others.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Georgia O'Keeffe's effortless genius is easy to take for granted unless a curator or museum finds a way to make it new again. A dedicated museum in Santa Fe successfully refreshes the artist in this unexpectedly observant catalogue, edited by the museum's curator. Organized by subject—abstractions, still lifes, landscapes—the 336 color reproductions capture well the ecstasy of O'Keeffe's eye. Here is her favorite wooden door, the road to Santa Fe, a canyon. Two lavish gatefolds keep thematic work side by side. The book lets the artist's work and words speak for themselves, as the light text mainly consists of extended captions that incorporate sparky quotes from O'Keeffe's letters and interviews: The red hill is a piece of the bad lands where even the grass is gone.... I think [it] our most beautiful country—you may not have seen it, so you want me always to paint flowers. While the book contains its fair share of O'Keeffe flowers, it gives full credit to her red hill and her unique ability to see movement and light in a rock, a flagpole or even a favorite doorway. Essential for fans, the book also makes for a handsome introduction to the artist's brilliance.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Georgia O'Keeffe has been the subject of many fine art books, but this generously designed volume is a standout. Published to mark the tenth anniversary of the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico, it showcases 335 works (including some by O'Keeffe's peers) in superb color reproductions of remarkable depth and luminance. Even the most ardent O'Keeffe admirers will discover pieces they've never seen before, especially those created early and late in the artist's life. While O'Keeffe's paintings, grouped by subject (aerial views, trees, abstractions), are breathtaking, the lesser-known but no less powerful works on paper (elegant drawings, sumptuous pastels, and beautifully free and expressive watercolors) are intimate and vital, perfect for viewing on the page. Excerpts from O'Keeffe's writings mingle with genuinely illuminating commentary. One disclosure of particular interest: it seemed that O'Keeffe used the nude photographs her husband, Alfred Stieglitz, took of her as sources for the geometric shapes in her work. Sensuous, profoundly attentive, and mysterious, O'Keeffe's art consecrates life's interlocking forms and symmetry, and the infinite grandeur of light. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams; First edition (February 20, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 081090957X
• ISBN-13: 978-0810909571
• Product Dimensions: 12 x 10 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #228,770 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A TREASURE FOR ALL, March 28, 2007

By 

Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Collection (Hardcover)

For those of us not fortunate enough to be going to Santa Fe this year for the celebration of the tenth anniversary of the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum (which houses the largest collection of her work), here is an able substitute. Those who have visited the Museum in the past will relish this opportunity to revisit not only her art but her houses at Ghost Ranch and in Abiqiu, New Mexico.

It need not be said that O'Keeffe is a preeminent artist of the twentieth century, one of the most respected and loved. An American modernist she is acclaimed for her compelling abstractions, so elegant and vital. Her visions are often enlarged. Inspired by the natural she once said, "When I found the beautiful white bones in the desert I picked them up and took them home too...I have used these things to say what is to me the wideness and wonder of the world as I live in it."

This gorgeous volume is rich with illustrations - 335 in full color and two eight-page gatefolds. It also includes numerous photos, some previously unpublished, and works by others who embraced modernism and painted in New Mexico.

Curator of the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, author Barbara Buhler Lynes is the leading authority on this artist. She has done a meritorious yeoman's task in compiling this glorious volume which is a treasure for all.

- Gail Cooke

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely worth the price, July 29, 2009

By 

Chel Micheline "Chel Micheline" (Southwest Florida) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Collection (Hardcover)

This is a HUGE, beautiful book which features some of Georgie O'Keeffe's most stunning works.

The book is 12"x 10" and as thick as a dictionary, if not thicker. I was surprised by the heft of it.

The entire book (besides a few pages of introductory text) is comprised of large, full-color plates of O'Keeffe's most luminous works. There are over 300 plates in all. The pages are super-thick and glossy, and there are several "fold out" pages to provide an even closer look at some of the works of art. The color is bright and vibrant.

Note: One reviewer commented that there was too much "white space" around the images- I completely disagree. The images are made as large as possible and often cover the entire page, save a small white border around the image. Some of O'Keeffe's images are either horizontal in orientation or very long and tall; therefore, the only way to get the entire image on a page without distorting it, cropping it, or turning it is to surround it with *some* kind of border. However, the images are as large as possible- there are no "postage stamp" size images.

This is truly a generous offering of O'Keeffe's entire career. It's one of those art books that makes me feel lucky to own. It's really beautiful.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Georgia O'Keeffe Would Have Loved This Book!, September 10, 2007

By 

Laura Cohen (Sherman Oaks, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Collection (Hardcover)

Georgia O'Keeffe would have loved this book! Not only does Barbara Buhler Lynes, curator of Santa Fe's Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, respect her subject's astonishing eye and craftsmanship in this book, she respects Ms. O'Keeffe's wishes regarding displaying her works of art. During her lifetime, the artist often mounted her own shows, e.g., at An American Place, her husband Alfred Stieglitz's gallery in New York. Ms. O'Keeffe was adamant (a) that her creations be hung on white walls, and (b) that her artwork be arranged by type rather than chronology.

Lynes abides by both of the artist's rules here to great effect, and her meticulousness, in terms of the notes she provides about the artist's work and also the tags she associates with the plates (where she identifies the type and size of the surface used and also the type of medium: charcoal, graphite, oil, watercolor), add another layer of enjoyment for the reader.

Lynes' notes attempt to steer the reader away from stereotypical interpretations that haunted Ms. O'Keeffe during her career. For instance, regarding "Blue II" (Plate 3, Page 19), the curator states: "The . . . womblike spiral of 'Blue II' seems to substantiate connections critics in the 1920's made between O'Keeffe's work and female sexuality. Yet when she made this watercolor, O'Keeffe was intensely involved in playing the violin, and . . . the form . . . of the spiral in her watercolor most likely derive[s] from the scroll-shaped termination of the neck of the instrument . . ."

Categories in the book include abstractions, still lifes, architecture, animal and human forms, and trees. Every reader will find his or her favorite here; mine are the artist's representations of feathery kachina dolls and New Mexico's Pedernal. The last category in the book contains works by other artists at the museum whose careers, in some way, parallelled that of Ms. O'Keeffe. Stieglitz photographs (including a Georgia O'Keeffe nude) are here, as well as Ansel Adams' memorable "gelatin silver print" of Georgia O'Keeffe and Orville Cox at Canyon de Chelly National Park.