Georgia O'Keeffe : Catalogue Raisonne
 | National Gallery Washington, 1999, Hardcover |
|---|
This two-volume slipcased catalogue raisonn_ presents in color more than 2,000 works by Georgia O`Keeffe, an artist whose creations placed her at the center of the ferment in early twentieth-century American art. The catalogue`s paintings, drawings, watercolors, and sculpture display O`Keeffe`s innovative use of color and form and testify to her distinctive contribution to American modernism.
Georgia O'Keeffe, who was born in 1887 and lived nearly 99 years, was a prolific, successful artist whose work was exhibited continually throughout her adult life. To give an impression of the scope of this two-volume boxed set, here is a sentence from the preface by Barbara Buhler Lynes: "The catalogue reproduces and describes 2,045 objects, made by O'Keeffe between 1901 [when she was 14] and 1984." And for an idea of the care Lynes brought to her task, here is the next: "Of these, 2,029 were located and examined between June 1992 and December 1998: 821 on canvas or board; 1,137 on paper...."
Obviously, this catalog will be indispensable to many libraries and museums, but it is also a work that any lover of O'Keeffe's art will pore over for years. From the first pages of volume 1, a reader is struck by the early appearance of motifs that remained essential to O'Keeffe throughout her life: architectural forms; flowers; vases and vessels with monumental, simplified shapes. (After the early years, however, she deals with the human metaphorically, in phallic sculptures or nipple-like seed pods, or the swollen bellies of clay pots.) For those readers who may have fallen out of love a bit during the 1970s — when O'Keeffe's least works seemed to be included in every gathering of second-rate, so-called women's art — these two volumes will renew their passion. Her astonishing talent, which she never betrayed, pulses through these color-saturated pages. While most works are necessarily reproduced smaller than the originals, the book's designers have dealt thoughtfully with issues of scale by increasing the size of the reproductions as O'Keeffe's paintings became larger and printing her vast, late cloudscapes and other large works at full- or double-page size. This is typical of the sensitivity with which this catalog was conceived. — Peggy Moorman
Title: Georgia O'Keeffe : Catalogue Raisonne
Sales Rank: 168402 in Books
Author: Barbara Buhler Lynes
Publisher: National Gallery Washington, 1999-11-10, Hardcover, 1198 pages, ISBN: 0300081766
Package Dimensions: 14.4 x 11.9 x 4.4 inches, 18.9 pounds
- for a gift
- I bought this item for a gift, so I can not say anything about this item. But he was satisfied.
Because he is a fan of O'keef
Thank you! More reviews
- a whole view of her life's work
- Well produced and comprehensive, as a whole it adds up to a devastatingly beautiful record of the life's work of the artist with accompanying text on her key influences and relationships. More reviews
- stunning
- Like a museum in a box, quite frankly. You can find it for $99 (yes, the entire set, full size, etc.) at The Met museum's online shop- a great bargain ~ metmuseum.org More reviews
- Wonderful
- I was not a fan of Georgia O'Keefe before checking this volume out from the library. Now, I am frankly astonished by the beauty of her work especially her watercolors which are vibrant, clean, and just beautiful. It will be an eye opener to anyone who has formed their opinions solely on her giant flower or cow skull paintings-- whether you like her… More reviews
- A Wonderful Gift
- This book was on my wish list before it was published! I received it as a gift upon my graduation from Art Center College of Design. I have loved Georgia O'Keefe's work since I was very young, and I have most of the books published about her and this one is not only the most comprehensive but beautiful as well. In a review I read it was described as 'cumbersome',… More reviews
