Portrait of an Artist: A Biography of Georgia O'Keeffe (Paperback)

by Laurie Lisle (Author) "LATE IN THE AUTUMN OF 1887, THE SUN PRAIRIE Countryman, a rural Wisconsin newspaper, briefly noted that a baby girl had arrived two days before..." (more)
Key Phrases: catalog statement, woman painter, New York, New Mexico, Lake George (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
Christian Science Monitor This O'Keeffe will shock as much as amuse, chill as much as inspire. -- Review

Review
Joyce Carol OatesFascinating...filled with riches...what a personality emerges from these pages!

Chicago TribuneReaders will welcome what Lisle has found. The woman who emerges has extraordinary personal stature, artistic gifts, commitment to her vision.

San Francisco ChronicleAn excellent portrait of a nearly legendary figure.

Patricia BosworthPortrait of an Artist moved me deeply -- I can't remember when a book involved me so totally.

Christian Science MonitorThis O'Keeffe will shock as much as amuse, chill as much as inspire.

Eleanor Munroauthor of Originals: American Woman ArtistsLaurie Lisle has given us a mortal Georgia O'Keeffe, whose human hunger and frailties, gifts and strengths enabled her to survive -- triumphantly -- a conflicted life.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Washington Square Press; Rev Upd Su edition (October 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671016660
• ISBN-13: 978-0671016661
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #81,724 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Portrait That the Artist Would Have Enjoyed, August 30, 2007

By	Laura Cohen (Sherman Oaks, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

When author Laurie Lisle advised the artist, Georgia O'Keeffe, that hers was a story Lisle "wanted to tell," O'Keeffe, as was her wont, elected not to participate but told Lisle, "you are welcome to what you find." ("Forward and Acknowledgments.") Lisle, equipped with a passion for her subject and steadfastness of purpose - qualities similar to those governing O'Keeffe's own work and life - pored through museum bulletins and exhibition catalogue notes, magazine and newspaper articles, memoirs about O'Keeffe's artistic peers (including her husband, photographer Alfred Stieglitz), and O'Keeffe's letters preserved in Yale's Beinecke Rare Book Library. She spoke with O'Keeffe's schoolmates, in-laws, and friends. And, of course, she viewed O'Keeffe's creations.

There is not one spot of color in this book except for the auburn and gold lettering on the jacket of my paperback. The sixteen pages of photographs in the book, only four of which show O'Keeffe posing with her art, are black-and-white. One imagines, had the artist participated in this project and accepted that a literary work, with an artist as its subject, could be as beautiful and fascinating as the flowers, skulls, rivers, and stones she captured in her own paintings, O'Keeffe would have appreciated the lack of color. For much of her life, O'Keeffe's signature garb was black with a touch of white, due to a belief that admirers ought to focus on the art, not the artist.

While reading this book, one obviously is tempted to take occasional breaks from Lisle's gorgeously plain, non-effusive prose to google O'Keeffe's paintings. After I read about O'Keeffe's initiation into the jet age, where she was surprised to peer down from her airplane window and "see so many rivers, tributaries, and deltas undulating through the earth's deserts" ("Chapter 13: Clouds"), I just had to view "It Was Red and Pink." However, this book clearly is not an art critique. Paintings are discussed insofar as they provide insight into O'Keeffe's mind, heart, and soul. Most of the time, while reading, I stayed far away from the computer. I was riveted by tales about family, femininity, marriage, the artist's apparent struggle between remaining dedicated to painting and perhaps having a baby, the conflict between how she and the public perceived her work, intimations of mortality, and a devotion to the splendors of New Mexico even after her eyesight failed.

I would recommend this book to anyone who relishes art, history, New Mexico, femininism, humanity, or just would love to read a great book.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars lending and losing this book should have taught me a lesson, July 24, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Portrait of an Artist : A Biography of Georgia O'Keeffe (Hardcover)

Having read Portrait of an Artist in college I learned to appreciate the talent, determination and self reliance that success requires. It should be required reading for every young woman

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great book, August 28, 2007

By	ga ga for books - See all my reviews

This review is from: Portrait of an Artist Georgia Okeeffe (Mass Market Paperback)

For so many years to me, Georgia O'Keeffe was just a well-known woman artist who painted flowers. Thanks to this book I came away feeling that I got to truly know and admire this artist and now I can look at her pictures differently with a deeper understanding and appreciation for them. Thanks to this book I think I have learned to look at the beauty in nature in a different way and feel that this book has taught me much about people and truly opened my eyes in many ways to the world around me and made me curious about different areas of our wonderful country. Very enlightening in many ways and definitely worth reading.