Description
Book SynopsisOne of the greatest and most admired artists of the twentieth century, Georgia O’Keeffe led a life rich in intense relationships—with family, friends, and especially with fellow artist Alfred Stieglitz. Her extraordinary accomplishments, such as the often eroticized flowers, bones, stones, skulls, and pelvises she painted with such command, are all the more remarkable when seen in the context of the struggle she waged between the rigorous demands of love and work.
When Roxana Robinson’s definitive biography of O’Keeffe was first published in 1989, it received rave reviews and was named a
New York Times Notable Book of the Year. This new edition features a new foreword by the author setting O’Keefe in an artistic context over the last thirty years since the book was first published, as well as previously unpublished letters of the young O’Keeffe to her lover, Arthur MacMahon. It also relates the story of Robinson’s own encounter with the artist. As interest in O’Keeffe continues to grow among museum-goers and scholars alike, this book remains indispensable for understanding her life and art.
Trade Review“The best book ever written on O’Keeffe. . . . An invaluable resource.” -- Calvin Tomkins * New Yorker *
“Robinson’s detailed, sensitive critique of O’Keeffe’s work alternates with an absorbing, intimate narrative of O’Keeffe’s personal life (including her notorious relationship with Juan Hamilton, six decades her junior, and the public battle over her estate) to provide a resourceful, imaginatively rendered portrait of a dauntingly difficult subject.” * Publishers Weekly *
“The most comprehensive O’Keeffe biography to date, this essentially feminist reading convincingly builds its case from a wealth of sources . . . to explain less the woman-behind-the-myth than how and why the woman herself became myth-maker.” * Kirkus Reviews *
“A profoundly human treatment of O’Keeffe and all the people who figured prominently in her life.” * Los Angeles Times *
"thorough and immersive" * Hyperallergic *
"Robinson’s comprehensive biography gives a vivid account of O’Keeffe’s remarkable artistic career." * The Art Newspaper *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments, Part I: 1887-1902 Sun Prairie: The Wide and Generous Land, Part II: 1903-1918 Distant Skies: Explorations and Initiations, Part III: 1919-1928 An Ordered Life: Manhattan and Lake George, Part IV: 1929-1946 A Fair Division: New York and New Mexico, Part V: 1947-1972 A Peaceful Life: The Land of Shining Stone, Part VI: 1973-1986 Withdrawal: The Dying of the Light, Sources and Codes for Notes, Notes, Selected Bibliography, Index, Illustrations: Sources and Credits
