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Yellow Calla

Object Details

Luce Center Label
The waxy, long-stemmed calla lily captivated Georgia O'Keeffe in the 1920s. The calla lily was a popular subject in American art in the 1920s and 1930s, when it was fashionable to read sexual and psychological values into the blooms. (Lynes, Georgia O'Keeffe and the Calla Lily in American Art, 1860-1940, 2002). But O'Keeffe objected to this, and insisted that the point of painting any flower so closely and hypnotically was to make people see it for the first time.
Data Source
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Artist
Georgia O'Keeffe, born Sun Prairie, WI 1887-died Santa Fe, NM 1986
Date
1926
Credit Line
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Woodward Foundation
Medium
oil on fiberboard
Dimensions
9 x 12 3/4 in. (22.9 x 32.4 cm)
Type
Painting

Featured In

  • American Women Artists
  • Georgia O'Keeffe
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