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VOICE ONE:

I’m Gwen Outen.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Steve Ember with People in America in VOA SpecialEnglish. Today we tell about one of the greatest painters of thetwentieth century, Georgia O’Keeffe.

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VOICE ONE:

America has produced many great painters in the past one-hundredyears. Georgia O’Keeffe is one of the most popular and easilyrecognized artists. People do not mistake her work for anyoneelse’s. People can immediately identify her paintings of huge,colorful flowers or bones in dream-like deserts.

Georgia O’Keeffe said she did not know how she got the idea to bean artist. But, she said, the idea came early. She rememberedannouncing when she was twelve years old that she planned to be anartist.

VOICE TWO:

Georgia was born in eighteen eighty seven, the second of sevenchildren. Her parents were successful farmers in the middle westernstate of Wisconsin.

Georgia’s mother also had cultural interests. She made sure thatGeorgia and her sisters studied art, in addition to their usualschool subjects. By the time Georgia was sixteen, the O’Keeffefamily had moved to Williamsburg, Virginia.

After Georgia finished school, sheattended the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois. Georgia wasespecially pleased with the help she got from her teacher, JohnVanderpoel. She later wrote that John Vanderpoel was one of the fewreal teachers she knew.

VOICE ONE:

In nineteen-oh-seven, O’Keeffe began a year at the Art StudentsLeague in New York City. The famous painter William Merritt Chasewas one of her teachers. Chase had a great influence on O’Keeffe’searly artistic development. She described him as fresh, full ofenergy and fierce. She seemed to understand and agree with his styleof painting.

Then, in nineteen-oh-eight, Georgia O’Keeffe left the world offine art. She moved back to Chicago and worked in the advertisingbusiness. She drew pictures of products to be sold. Her parents hadbeen struggling financially for some time in Virginia. Later, hermother became sick with tuberculosis. Some art historians suspectthese were the main reasons Georgia O’Keeffe spent four years inbusiness instead of continuing her studies.

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VOICE TWO:

In nineteen twelve, O’Keeffe returned to art school at theUniversity of Virginia in Charlottesville. Artist and teacher ArthurWesley Dow taught that art should fill space in a beautiful way.This theory influenced and changed her work. O’Keefe also learnedabout the Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky. He wanted artists torepresent the inner spirit in outer things. O’Keeffe consideredKandinsky’s writings a treasure. She read them throughout her life.

VOICE ONE:

In nineteen fifteen, Georgia O’Keeffe decided that much of whatshe had been taught in art school was of little value. She decidedto hang recent work she had done on the wall of her home. Sheexamined it and did not find herself in the art. She wrote that shehad been taught to work like others. She decided then that she wouldnot spend her life doing what had already been done.

Georgia O’Keeffe began to search for her own style. She used onlycharcoal, the black material made from burned wood. In her bookabout her life, she wrote that she decided to limit herself tocharcoal until she found she really needed color to do what sheneeded to do. She wrote that six months later she found she neededthe color blue. She used it for a watercolor painting she called”Blue Lines.”

VOICE TWO:

Georgia O’Keeffe had met the famous art critic and photographerAlfred Stieglitz (STEEG-lits) at his New York City gallery innineteen-oh-eight. Their friendship grew as they wrote letters toeach other. In nineteen fifteen, O’Keeffe told a friend that shewanted her art to please Alfred Stieglitz more than anyone else.

That friend showed O’Keeffe’scharcoal drawings to Stieglitz. Stieglitz liked her drawings enoughto show them in his art gallery, called Two Ninety One.

VOICE ONE:

Alfred Stieglitz was a major force behind shows of GeorgiaO’Keeffe’s work for the next twenty-five years. Her first individualshow at his gallery was well received. She sold her first piece atthat show in nineteen seventeen.

Stieglitz became O’Keeffe’s strongest supporter. Seven yearslater he became her husband. He was twenty-four years older than hisnew wife.

The relationship between Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitzwas not an easy one. O’Keeffe once said that to her “he was muchmore wonderful in his work than as a human being.” But, she alsosaid she loved him for what seemed “clear and bright and wonderful.”The two remained married until his death in nineteen forty six.

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VOICE TWO:

Georgia O’Keeffe also had a long love relationship with thesouthwestern part of the United States. The desert environment wasthe subject of many of her paintings. O’Keeffe had moved to thestate of Texas when she was twenty-five. She accepted a two-yearposition as supervisor of art in the public schools of Amarillo,Texas.

Later, she taught in a small town. She wrote about long walks onnarrow paths in a canyon near that town. The dangerous climbs in andout of the canyon were like nothing she had known before. She wrotethat many paintings came from experiences like that.

In one such painting, the canyon is shown as a huge deep hole ofmany colors — reds, oranges and yellows. It looks as if it is onfire. The canyon fills most of the picture. A small area of blue skyin the distance lends additional depth to the picture.

VOICE ONE:

In nineteen thirty, GeorgiaO’Keeffe began spending most of her summers in the state of NewMexico. She called it “the faraway.” She painted big pictures ofdesert flowers and the high rocky hills. She also began to paintpictures of the bones she found during walks near her summer home.Most of her paintings share the qualities of largeness of subjectand richness of color.

The artist discussed those two qualities in her book, called”Georgia O’Keefe.” She wrote that color is more exact in meaningthan words. Later, she wrote that she found she could say thingswith color and shape that she could not express in words.

She also spoke of a special need to paint her subjects largerthan they are in life. She seemed to want to force people to seemore deeply into objects such as flowers. She tried to show thedifferent shapes and colors within a single flower. The artist saidshe would make even busy New Yorkers take time to see what she sawin flowers.

VOICE TWO:

O’Keeffe was angered by some criticism of her work over theyears. She rejected critics’ claims that there was deep sexualmeaning in her paintings of flowers. She said that people linkedtheir own experience of a flower to her paintings. She suggestedthat critics wrote about her flower paintings as if they knew whatshe was seeing and thinking. But, she said, they did not know.

Georgia O’Keeffe always argued that what others think of theartist’s work is not important. She once wrote to a friend, “…I’ll do as I please.”

VOICE ONE:

Georgia O’Keeffe bought her first house in New Mexico in nineteenforty. After Alfred Stieglitz died, she moved to “the faraway'”permanently. She lived in New Mexico for the rest of her life.

In the early nineteen seventies, O’Keeffe began losing her sightbecause of an eye disease. She stopped working with oil paints, butcontinued to produce watercolor paintings.

Around the same time, she met a young artist who would becomevery important to her. Juan Hamilton made pottery, objects of clay.He became O’Keeffe’s assistant and friend. They also travelledtogether. But in the early nineteen-eighties Georgia O’Keeffe’shealth failed severely. She died in nineteen-eighty-six. She wasninety-eight.

VOICE TWO:

Georgia O’Keefe received many honors during her long life.President Gerald Ford presented her with the Medal of Freedom innineteen-seventy-seven. Eight years later, President Ronald Reaganawarded her the National Medal of Arts. Students and expertscontinue to study and write about her work.

Her paintings are shown around the world. And, more thanone-million people have visited the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in NewMexico since it opened in nineteen-ninety-seven.

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VOICE ONE:

This program was written by Caty Weaver. It was produced by LawanDavis. I’m Gwen Outen.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Steve Ember. Listen again next week for People In Americain VOA Special English.