Georgia O' Keeffe

Grey Line with Black, Blue, and Yellow, 1923

The first artist that came to mind that critically addresses cultural and social issues was Georgia O'Keeffe. She is considered to be one of the most intriguing and significant artists of the 20th century. Her contributions to Modern Art can be seen in museums all over the world and she is one of the most recognized female artists. Her bold flower paintings that look coincidentally like it could be a vagina are her most iconic pieces (even though she never admitted to purposely make the flowers look that way). She studied at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1905-1906 and the Art Students League in New York in 1907-1908. Under the direction of William Merritt Chase, F. Luis Mora, and Kenyon Cox she learned the techniques of traditional realist painting. The direction of her artistic practice shifted dramatically in 1912 when she studied the revolutionary ideas of Arthur Wesley Dow.

Georgia O'Keeffe holding her painting in New Mexico, Tony Vaccaro, 1960

She began a series of abstract charcoal drawings in 1915 that represented a radical break with tradition and made O’Keeffe one of the very first American artists to practice pure abstraction.
O'Keeffe has been recognized as the "Mother of American Modernism" and has been a trailblazer for all the women who entered the art world after her. A legend beginning in the 1920s, known as much for her independent spirit and female role model as for her dramatic and innovative works of art. Within a decade of moving to New York City, she was the highest paid American woman artist. In her artwork, O'Keeffe would show elements from different movements like Surrealism and Precionism, but created a style that was all her own. She dared to do something that in her time it seemed impossible for a woman to do. I believe today many female artists still struggle with the idea that their artwork won't reach the same level of praise as a man's or that their artwork won't be taken as seriously. But O'Keeffe's legacy lives to prove that that idea doesn't have to be true.

https://www.georgiaokeeffe.net/