Flower of Desire and Desert Elf —— American artist Georgia O 'Keeffe

Georgia O 'Keeffe Giorgiya Toto O'Keefe (1887165438+1October15-1March 6, 986) is an American painter in the 20th century, and is recognized as "the mother of American modernism". She is famous for painting flowers, skyscrapers, animal skulls and Mexican scenery.

Ou Jifu's works are often full of subtle changes in the same tone, forming a rhythmic composition. Sometimes, the outline of objects in Ou Jifu's paintings will make viewers feel the crisp feeling of objects.

Ou Jifu's 98-year-old longevity is itself a legend.

puberty

She was born on 1887 in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, USA. Her parents run a dairy farm. Ou Jifu's mother encourages her children to receive a good education. She studied painting since she was a child, and her grandmother and two sisters also like painting. Ou Jifu entered the famous art institute of chicago for further study on 1905. Two years later, she transferred to new york and joined the Art Students' Union.

New york's Personality Bride

1908, when Ou Jifu went to new york 29 1 gallery to watch the watercolor painting exhibition of sculptor Rodin, she met her future husband, gallery owner and photographer Alfred Grice. As a famous photographer, Steve Grice left her in the image when Ou Jifu held her solo exhibition in his gallery for the first time in 19 17.

Ou Jifu is Steve Grice's most successful work. 192 1 In February, Steve Grice held a photography exhibition. There are 45 works on display, most of which are Ou Jifu himself, and even a few of them are nude. This exhibition inevitably makes Ou Jifu the focus of everyone's talk.

Steve Grice observed Ou Jifu by painting flowers, full of enthusiasm and excitement; His lens is always aimed at her feminine ketone body, skin texture, prominent cheekbones and long hands, just like the extension of feminine flowers.

Realizing the deep connection between them, the artists fell in love and started a relationship. Steve Grice divorced his wife and married Ou Jifu on 1924.

From 65438 to 0924, Ou Jifu began the most famous series of flowers, large-scale microscopic pictures of flowers, which were composed of mysterious and vibrant compositions with subtle curves and gradual colors. This series of paintings, when exhibited on 1925, pushed Ou Jifu to the first peak of his painting career. During this period, her masterpiece Datura Datura, BaihuaNo. 1 was sold in Sotheby's, new york in 20 14 for US$ 44.4 million, making it the most expensive work of female artists in the auction.

Ou Jifu also turned her artist's eyes to the skyscrapers in new york, and new york is a symbol of modernity. The high-rise buildings in new york are built faster and faster, and the space is more and more closed and narrow. In this dark and rough machine-like artificial creation, it is full of serious material desires and repression.

These works include City Night (1926), new york Shelton Hotel 1 (1926) and new york Radiator Building Night (1927). One of her most famous works is new york's "Radiator Architecture-Night", which shows her skills in depicting architecture with precise style.

Female painter in the desert

"It's like I'm sick and I have to stay away from the crowd to get better."

In order to live an ideal life, she chose to give up new york and go to the desolate land in the western United States.

Ou Jifu and Steve Grice lived together in new york until 1929, when Ou Jifu began to spend a year in the southwest, which provided inspiration for her new Mexican landscape paintings and animal skull images.

Ou Jifu spends six months in New Mexico every year, and Steve Grice has never been here. She painted alone and made the desert her home. In the days of separation, they wrote more than 5000 letters.

1949, three years after Steve Grice's death, she officially moved to New Mexico and began her artistic life of living alone until her death. During this period, her paintings still maintained her usual creative way. The hills, stones and canyons she painted have soft shadows and smooth lines, showing a full sense of body. Even the animal skulls in the desert show beautiful human curves.

The dusk of life

In his later years, Ou Jifu suffered from macular degeneration and began to lose his sight. Despite her poor eyesight, her creative motivation has not wavered. With the help of her assistant, she continued to create works of art and wrote the best-selling Memoirs of Georgia O'Keefe (1976+0976). "I can see what I want to paint," she said at the age of 90, "so that what you want to create is still there."

1977, President Gerald Rudolph Ford awarded Ou Jifu the Medal of Freedom and won the National Medal of Art in 1985.

1986, Ou Jifu passed away, and her ashes were scattered in this lonely place with no lover and no friends, only her own. She is the daughter of the earth, born in the grassland and died in the desert.

Flower desire

"If you hold a flower in your hand and look closely, you will find that in an instant, the whole world belongs to you."

In art, flowers are usually considered as symbols of women's bodies. Ou Jifu presented them on the canvas delicately and meticulously.

Ou Jifu magnified the flowers to the point of close-up, so that you have to look at them carefully, instead of simply appreciating them, so as to discover details and mysteries that you have never paid attention to. So among roses, mandalas, camellias and poppies, she became a honey-gathering bee. Hide your body in the middle and peek at their bodies. She painted the quietly growing buds on paper, so that the color and shape were not limited by the external forms of nature, and the petals seemed to cover the sky.

As Ou Jifu himself said, "When you look at the flower in your hand, at that moment, that flower becomes your world. I want to pass that world on to others. Most people in big cities are in a hurry and have no time to stop and look at a flower. I want to force them to watch it, whether they like it or not. "

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