Poppy By Georgia O Keeeffe
Museum report on
Poppy by Georgia O’Keeffe
Written by Lauren Harmon
1. I visited the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, Florida. My visit took place on Sunday, November 16th, at around noon.
2. I’m going to highlight Poppy.
3. Painted by Georgia O'Keeffe
4. Painted in 1927
5. It seems as though her intended audience for this painting (and the others in the series) was the general masses, people who live busy lives. She wanted people to stop and really see the flowers and notice their beauty rather than just pass by. She even stated herself that she wanted “busy New Yorkers” to take the time to look at the flowers.
6. She was a “modern” painter.
7. She typically painted flowers and landscape, this painting being a flower.
8. Oil on Canvas
9. The surface of this painting was smooth and feminine for the most part, with the center having just a slight texture to it.
10. …show more content…
O'Keeffe being big on colors used bright tones and stark contrast to give this painting depth and really make the flower come to life. Her art dealer and husband referred to this painting as “that wild red picture” so it definitely stood out among her Poppies series. Poppy features a light blue-grey background, with a little bit of a white filling as if the flower is floating on water or the sky is the background. I loved the vivid and warm red and oranges being blended into the black center and ultimately leading to a gorgeous glowing, cool green and blue center bulb that again held a deep shade of red. The colors are
phenomenal.
11. The lighting for this painting seems to be viewer specific, I would say it’s painted this way purposefully to give a personal view of the flower.
12. O'Keeffe used an extreme close up perspective in her Poppies series, a style that was way ahead of her time. She overlapped the petals and provided a distorted background to really back the flower stand out. While her use of warm colors (red and orange) seems to make the flower advance towards the viewer. It seems as though she was very aware of spatial depth and used many illusions to create three-dimensional depth.
13. The proportions in this painting seem to be very accurate and realistic, just incredibly close up. The petals are in perfect proportion with the bulb in the center, allowing for an incredibly real painting – making it appear as though it could be a macro photograph if one didn’t know any better.
14. Poppy is a horizontal painting, that seems to be fairly simple and to the point; the only item in view is the Poppy flower – allowing for no distractions which is the exact reason O'Keeffe painted this series.
15. The context of Poppy is actually highly debated. Critics believe there is a sexual nature to her paintings, she claims “When you [refering to critics and others who wrote about these paintings] took time to really notice my flower you hung all your associations with flowers on my flower as if I think and see what you think and see of the flower--and I don't”, so that doesn’t seem to be the real reasoning behind these paintings. O’Keeffe is also quoted saying (as I mentioned above) that she wanted New Yorkers to stop and look at the flowers. So it seems as though she was painting to slow time, in a sense; she wanted people to stop and appreciate beauty by painting flowers in the way she saw them.
16. "ArtsNet Minnesota: Environment: Georgia O'Keeffe." ArtsNet Minnesota: Environment: Georgia O'Keeffe. ArtsNet Minnesota Web, Web. 18 Nov. 2014.
"Georgia O'Keeffe." GeorgiaOkeeffe.net: Oriental Poppies, 1928 by., 2011. Web. 22 Nov. 2014.
"Permanent Collection." Poppy. Musuem of Fine Arts - St Petersburg, FL, Web. 18 Nov. 2014.
17. I decided to analyze this painting because of the vibrant colors and extreme close up view. I really loved looking at the blue tones in the center, the glowing bulb was gorgeous and had me curious about her reasoning for painting it there. I loved the description of the painting as well, being an artist myself I felt I could relate to O’Keeffe and loved her a little bit more. I’ve heard of her as an artist before but after seeing the two works at the MoFA, I look forward to studying more of her work. As I researched, I read about books that influenced her and I’m actually going to begin reading a few of them as they sound very interesting!
I went to the museum with my husband and a friend of ours and we spent a few hours there wandering around and enjoying all of the different art in all of it’s forms. We laughed at the laughing horse and were amazed by some of the historic pieces of sculpture the museum offered. I accidentally pointed to closely at a painting and was spoken to by a security guard, he said the “guy in his ear is going nuts and would like for [us] to back up”. I learned to no longer use my fingers to point and instead started describing things with words to get my point across. I had a great time visiting, regardless of being reprimanded. I look forward to visiting other museums in the near future, actually.
An image of Poppy:
Poppy by Georgia O’Keeffe
Written by Lauren Harmon
1. I visited the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, Florida. My visit took place on Sunday, November 16th, at around noon.
2. I’m going to highlight Poppy.
3. Painted by Georgia O'Keeffe
4. Painted in 1927
5. It seems as though her intended audience for this painting (and the others in the series) was the general masses, people who live busy lives. She wanted people to stop and really see the flowers and notice their beauty rather than just pass by. She even stated herself that she wanted “busy New Yorkers” to take the time to look at the flowers.
6. She was a “modern” painter.
7. She typically painted flowers and landscape, this painting being a flower.
8. Oil on Canvas
9. The surface of this painting was smooth and feminine for the most part, with the center having just a slight texture to it.
10. …show more content…
O'Keeffe being big on colors used bright tones and stark contrast to give this painting depth and really make the flower come to life. Her art dealer and husband referred to this painting as “that wild red picture” so it definitely stood out among her Poppies series. Poppy features a light blue-grey background, with a little bit of a white filling as if the flower is floating on water or the sky is the background. I loved the vivid and warm red and oranges being blended into the black center and ultimately leading to a gorgeous glowing, cool green and blue center bulb that again held a deep shade of red. The colors are
phenomenal.
11. The lighting for this painting seems to be viewer specific, I would say it’s painted this way purposefully to give a personal view of the flower.
12. O'Keeffe used an extreme close up perspective in her Poppies series, a style that was way ahead of her time. She overlapped the petals and provided a distorted background to really back the flower stand out. While her use of warm colors (red and orange) seems to make the flower advance towards the viewer. It seems as though she was very aware of spatial depth and used many illusions to create three-dimensional depth.
13. The proportions in this painting seem to be very accurate and realistic, just incredibly close up. The petals are in perfect proportion with the bulb in the center, allowing for an incredibly real painting – making it appear as though it could be a macro photograph if one didn’t know any better.
14. Poppy is a horizontal painting, that seems to be fairly simple and to the point; the only item in view is the Poppy flower – allowing for no distractions which is the exact reason O'Keeffe painted this series.
15. The context of Poppy is actually highly debated. Critics believe there is a sexual nature to her paintings, she claims “When you [refering to critics and others who wrote about these paintings] took time to really notice my flower you hung all your associations with flowers on my flower as if I think and see what you think and see of the flower--and I don't”, so that doesn’t seem to be the real reasoning behind these paintings. O’Keeffe is also quoted saying (as I mentioned above) that she wanted New Yorkers to stop and look at the flowers. So it seems as though she was painting to slow time, in a sense; she wanted people to stop and appreciate beauty by painting flowers in the way she saw them.
16. "ArtsNet Minnesota: Environment: Georgia O'Keeffe." ArtsNet Minnesota: Environment: Georgia O'Keeffe. ArtsNet Minnesota Web, Web. 18 Nov. 2014.
"Georgia O'Keeffe." GeorgiaOkeeffe.net: Oriental Poppies, 1928 by., 2011. Web. 22 Nov. 2014.
"Permanent Collection." Poppy. Musuem of Fine Arts - St Petersburg, FL, Web. 18 Nov. 2014.
17. I decided to analyze this painting because of the vibrant colors and extreme close up view. I really loved looking at the blue tones in the center, the glowing bulb was gorgeous and had me curious about her reasoning for painting it there. I loved the description of the painting as well, being an artist myself I felt I could relate to O’Keeffe and loved her a little bit more. I’ve heard of her as an artist before but after seeing the two works at the MoFA, I look forward to studying more of her work. As I researched, I read about books that influenced her and I’m actually going to begin reading a few of them as they sound very interesting!
I went to the museum with my husband and a friend of ours and we spent a few hours there wandering around and enjoying all of the different art in all of it’s forms. We laughed at the laughing horse and were amazed by some of the historic pieces of sculpture the museum offered. I accidentally pointed to closely at a painting and was spoken to by a security guard, he said the “guy in his ear is going nuts and would like for [us] to back up”. I learned to no longer use my fingers to point and instead started describing things with words to get my point across. I had a great time visiting, regardless of being reprimanded. I look forward to visiting other museums in the near future, actually.
An image of Poppy: