Leszek Makówka

Katowice, University of Silesia

Abstract:

The criticism of Georgia O’Keeffe’s output focuses on abstract paintings. The author of the paper states that numerous paintings by O’Keeffe with the motif of the cross against the New Mexico landscape constitute an equally important part of her work, unknown to a broader audience. An attempt at the reconstruction of the history of the creation of the paintings, conducted on the basis of texts by their author and her contemporary critics, proves that the sign of the cross in those paintings plays a key role both in the compositional and ideological aspects. At the same time, in respect of formal solutions, those works equal the well-known paintings by the artist created as a result of transformation of a realistic subject.

Keywords: Georgia O’Keeffe, New Mexico, painting, landscape, cross