Georgia O'Keeffe: To See Takes Time

 

Recalling a velvety, dizzying spiral she had rendered in charcoal in 1916, Georgia O’Keeffe wrote, “I have made this drawing several times, never remembering that I had made it before—and not knowing where the idea came from.” Like that spiral and its companion drawings, the majority of O’Keeffe’s works on paper—in charcoal, watercolor, pastel, and pencil—were made in series. Through these sequences, the artist developed and transformed a distinct repertory of motifs, both abstract and figurative, enriching and deepening her inquiry in successive works, exploring the rhythm of their progression as well as their forms.