Georgia O'Keeffe Biography

Georgia O’Keeffe was an American artist counted amongst the greatest American artists of the 20th century. She was especially famed for her bold and striking paintings of flowers and New York skyscrapers. Born in the Town of Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, into a large family, she developed an interest in drawing and sketching at a young age and soon realized that her calling in life was to become an artist. She received lessons from a local art teacher as a young girl and went on to attend the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She also attended the Art Students League in New York City where she excelled as a budding artist and won accolades for her paintings. She learned the techniques of traditional realist painting from the likes of William Merritt Chase, F. Luis Mora, and Kenyon Cox, and was also greatly influenced by the radical ideas of Arthur Wesley Dow. Over the course of her career she became acquainted with the famed photographer and gallery owner Alfred Stieglitz who she eventually married. Her husband supported her career wholeheartedly and she went on to attain a name for herself as one of America’s most important and successful artists. She is often referred to as the "Mother of American modernism" in recognition of her contributions to American art.