The Two of a Great Artworks of Georgia O'Keeffe - Essay Example

Here we shall be looking at the works of the renowned artist, Georgia O'Keeffe, known for her paintings. Some of her famous pieces of art include Ladder to the Moon, 1958; Petunia No.2, 1924; New York--Night, 1926; Radiator Bldg--Night, New York, 1927; Sky Above the Clouds, 1962-63; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1960. Here, we shall be concentrating on two of her great art works of O'Keeffe, (i) Above the Clouds, 1962 (ii) Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1960. We shall go in depth to understand these two art pieces and try to see how an art is created, what all was used to make it, when was it made, why was that piece of art created, whether it is two-dimensional or three-dimensional. We will also analyze whether the piece is an applied art or fine art, is it meant for public use or not, what is the artist tryuing to put forth from the piece of art, what are its contents and elements. Here by we shall make an effort to have a feel of the creation of that art fully. Here, after having a glimpse of the art piece, one after the other and knowing the year & material of the creation, we move towards analysing and understanding the art piece from all perspectives. Since both the pieces belong to the same category of art, we shall talk about both together. (i) Sky Above the Clouds, 1962-1963 (ii) Gray Line (A) Year & Material The Painting Above the Clouds , 1962-63 is the largest of the paintings of O'keeffe's career. It is made on a huge canvass with the use of oil paint. The Painting Gray Line, 1923 is also amongst the most interesting abstract paintings made by O'Keffee. It is the similar oil on canvass art type. (B) Type of art The form of art used is Painting. Not being the portrait paintings, thes two pieces represents Creative Painting form of art, where in O'Keeffe's has used her imagination. (i) The Sky Above The Clouds puts on canvass her imagination to bring out how the sky looks from a height above 30,000 feet from the airplane.The painting uses very few colours giving it a somber look and is one of the most appreciated art pieces of O'Keeffe. (ii) The Gray Line puts on canvass a feeling of serenity. It is an abstract painting leaving it for the viewers to understand what it tries to speak.Most of the reviews written on it link it with the beauty of women and tenderness of women. (C) Art Dimension Both are essentially two dimensional art works. It is to be noted here that graphic designs, drawings, paintings belong to the two dimensional art forms whereas the three dimensional art form have length, breadth, and height which include sculptures, statues etc. (D) Representational, Abstract, Realistic, Stylized, Nonobjective, Figurative Both the art works of O'Keffee under discussion belong to the Abstract form of art. This is so because the art itself on its look doesnot depict anything in natural world in particular. Instead it is making use of colours in a non-representational way. It depicts real forms, keeping just an allusion of the original subject that it wants the viewers mind to hit. These paintings carry an intrinsic quality of od abstraction making them “non-figurative” “non-objective" as well as "non-representational”. (E) Fine or Applied Art. Both the art pieces belong to Fine Arts indicating a form of visual art and are concerned with beauty that appeals the viewers mind. These paintings donot choose a medium to convey what they try to put forth, but have a self expression in them.These art pieces arre abstract unlike, applied arts, they donot choose a medium of an object of function or daily use to represent a particular thought, idea or iamge. (F) Public or Private Use Both the art pieces are meant for public use. These paintings of O'Keeffe have been displayed at various museums and exibitions at New York and around the world. Moreover, most of O'Keeffe's art pieces were meant for public use (G) Subject Matter and Content ( i) Sky Above the Clouds The said art work is considered among the most dramatic and well-known images of O'Keeffe's. The subject matter is cloudscapes. When O'Keeffee was traveling around the world for the first time in an airplane, she was exhilarated by the vie that she was bale to see from its window. She describes the changing patterns and colors as "breathtaking" and was inspired to put forth those sights and feelings in her painting. Firstly, she painted pensive paintings that picturesqued the sky covered with a blanket of white clouds.Later, she put a series of canvases filled with puffed white clouds and blue sky stretching to infinity. This huge mural-size painting was one of the most ambitious works of O'Keeffe. (ii) Gray Line The gray line is a form of abstract art where in there is not particluar subject matter. The artist has used her imagination in portraying what she wants to convery through the colours and the curves. It is noted here that most of the art reviewers have linked the subject matter with Women. It is said that the dark the shape and the curves give an image of the physical structure of women and the colours used show how tender, serene and beautiful a woman is. Moreover, the deep going lines in the centre bring to imagination the depth and meaning in a lady's beauty meaning that it is not just on surface. The painting with its distinct use of colours giving an imagination of female body as well as flower bud side by side indicate that a lady is as beautiful and soft as a flower. The painting bring to imagination even the secret parts of a women giving it an image with softness, curves and depth. (H) Idea of the artist behind the Painting (i) Sky Above the Clouds It is said that O'Keeffe's perction on the world underwent a change after she travelled in an airplane for the first time. The impact of it started coming in the choice of her subjects as well as her subsequent paintings. She tried expressing the sights of the sky from the airplane through her paintings. She painted 14 such large paintings showcasing her wonder at the world around her. The results of these were highly abstract but devoid of the tight compositional structure. The artist has tried to convey a view from the hieght of 30,000 feet showing clouds upto infinity overlooking the world below it. The painter wanted to convert all her images of light hitting the surface of the snow, the sight of Mississippi, the footprints of people on the smow, and the fields.She tried to do this in the series of her art pieces where sky above the clod brings out Solid White clouds in the sky spreading all over till sight reaches. (ii) Gray Line Gray Line as mentioned above being a creative piece leading to creative images in mind regarding women, her tenderness, her body parts, her beauty, tenderness and depth bring out the abstraction that O'Keeffe has tried to put forth. It represents genitalia of the female, as well as the various curvatures that exists on the female form. (I) Elements of Art a. Line In Sky above the Clouds a wonderful use of line has been done to indicate the infinity of the sky and the extent to which clouds spread. In Gray Lines, the whole painting is given meaning with the lines and their curves with due precision. b. Shape In Sky above the Clouds the shape of the clouds has been chosen to indicate the image as viewed by the artist in her imagination In Gray Lines, the shape has played a fantastic role of building up an image of the deepest parts of a female.The organic shapes used give the picture an additional though proviking image. c. Color The hue and the intensity of the shades in the Sky Above the Clouds represent somberess and calmness of the clouds. In Gray Lines , the deepening shades in the centre and lighed shades in the edges create an image in the minds of the viewers letting them roll their thoughts on what the painting is trying to indicate d. Space The way both the paintings are createds with higher spacing at the edges and decreasing spaces between lines and shapes moving towards the the interior part give the depth that the artist wants to convey. e. Texture The implied smooth texture in both the paintings bring out the tenderness and calmness with the sight of it. BIBLIOGRAPHY 1) Rita Donagh, “Georgia O'Keeffe in Context” , Oxford Art Journal, Vol. 3, No. 1, Women in Art (Apr., 1980), pp. 44-50, Reterieved on 19th July, 2007. 2) Stephen G, Christianson, Jane M Hatch, Hw Wilson Co , “The American Book of Days”, Fourh Edition, Michigan: 2000 3) Havlice, Patricia Pate,, Scarecrow Press, “Art in Time”, Michingan: 1970 Read More