Georgia O’Keeffe, A Private Friendship, Part I

Description

Before Georgia O'Keeffe belonged to the desert, she belonged to Wisconsin. In the first volume of her acclaimed trilogy, Nancy Hopkins Reily returns to the artist's roots in Sun Prairie — the rolling farmland, wide skies, and close-knit family that shaped a young girl who would become America's most original modernist. Drawing on family letters, local history, and the author's deep knowledge of O'Keeffe's world, Part I: Walking the Sun Prairie Land traces Georgia's earliest years: the teachers who recognized her gift, the wildflowers and bones that first caught her artist's eye, and the bold decision to pursue painting when few women dared. Reily shows how the flat Midwestern horizon — and the freedom to look at it closely — became the foundation of O'Keeffe's visual language.

What this volume does so well is slow down and pay attention. Instead of rushing to the famous desert paintings, it stays with the young O'Keeffe: her family farm, her schooling, the friendships that encouraged her, and the early signs of the independence that would define her whole life. You will understand where her way of seeing came from — the wide sky, the open land, the habit of looking hard at ordinary things until they became extraordinary. The book also introduces Maria Chabot, whose friendship with O'Keeffe would matter greatly in later years, and it gives a vivid picture of Midwestern life at the turn of the twentieth century.

Intimate, well-researched, and rich with period detail, this is essential reading for O'Keeffe admirers, biography lovers, and anyone curious about where genius begins. A private friendship with an extraordinary artist, told from the ground she first walked. It is the perfect starting point for the trilogy, and a rewarding read on its own for anyone who wants to understand an artist from her beginnings rather than her legend. Get the ebook edition here at a discount from Tellebook.