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.

 

Published in conjunction with Georgia O’Keeffe: To See Takes Time, at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, this volume reunites many works rarely seen together, from the organic abstractions, frank nudes, and blazing sunsets of O’Keeffe’s early career to the flowers, portraits, and aerial views of the following decades. Essays by Samantha Friedman, the exhibition’s curator, and Laura Neufeld, the paper conservator who collaborated on this project, bring art-historical context and technical insight to a less familiar aspect of an artist we thought we knew. 180 pp.; 180 illus.