Georgia O'Keeffe/John Loengard: Paintings And Photographs

by Georgia O'Keeffe, John Loengard

Georgia O'Keeffe / John Loengard: Paintings and Photographs

In June 1966, photographer John Loengard was asked by Life magazine to photograph Georgia O'Keeffe in New Mexico, where she had been living since the late 1930s. Georgia O'Keeffe was 79 years old at the time, Loengard was 32, and for three days he observed and photographed the private life of this pioneer artist who virtually redefined American painting. For this unique book, we selected almost fifty of the finest black-and-white pictures Loengard took of the grand, solitary woman in the desert, and juxtaposed them with selected paintings of hers. They record the course of a day in the life of Georgia O'Keeffe from sunrise to sunset, developing their own quiet, mysterious effect. It becomes clear how much the austere poetry of the landscape corresponded to the artist's own self-created world and how her artistic imagination was kindled by bleached bones and an infinite desert.

Texts by Georgia O'Keeffe and John Loengard

Genres: Art

80 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Georgia Totto O'Keeffe was an American artist. She is associated with the American Southwest, where she found artistic inspiration, and particularly New Mexico, where she settled late in life. O'Keeffe has been a major figure in American art since the 1920s. She is chiefly known for paintings in which she synthesized abstraction and representation in paintings of flowers, rocks, shells, animal bones and landscapes. Her paintings present crisply contoured forms that are replete with subtle tonal transitions of varying colors. She often transformed her subject matter into powerful abstract images.

Reviews

[Autumn Kearney · Rating 2 out of 5]

Georgia O'Keeffe/John Loengard : paintings & photographs : a visit to Abiquiu and Ghost Ranch. This collection was okay. It did not move me as others did previously.

[Sep · Rating 5 out of 5]

John Loengard's black and white photographs of Georgia O'Keeffe at Ghost Ranch and Abiquiu coupled with many of her paintings of the same area make a brilliant contrast. Mr. Loengard was able to photograph many of Ms. O'Keeffe's props. My favorite is "Horse Skull Stuffed with Pink Rose" facing a photograph of a shelf displaying several animal skulls and some antlers. (NOTE: Ms. O'Keeffe had two homes in New Mexico: one at Ghost Ranch and the other in a little town called Abiquiu.)

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve recently stumbled upon Georgia O’Keeffe’s artwork and have fallen in love with it. The way that she paints discarded bones and skulls to show the beauty of it all really speaks to me.

I loved this book in particular because it was nice to see all the photographs of places and things that have brought O’Keeffe inspiration side by side with her artwork. The art and photographs were selected thoughtfully and presented a well thought out story to those viewing the book.

[Daniel Dimitrov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful photos of Georgia O'Keffe and her estate side by side with O'Keffe's paintings. It is quite amazing how closely she was inspired by her surroundings in the desert and how John Loengard was able to capture that.

[Edie Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice short text with brief bio. Photos of O’Keeffe at home in the desert These are presented with some of her paintings.