GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Taking winter-stripped trees in upstate New York as her subject, Georgia O'Keeffe simplified what she saw until what is left in this painting is an exploration of shape and color. O'Keeffe abstracted the essence of these forms by pulling in close to the trees without focusing on details; the forms are smooth, the bark dissolving into areas of soft grays and warm beige. The shallow space and cropped trees lend an ambiguity to the subject resolved only by the descriptive title. Throughout her career, O'Keeffe united abstraction with an abiding interest in nature, creating signature, close-up images of natural forms.
Adapted from
- Wiliam Keyse Rudolph, DMA label copy, 2005
- Eleanor Jones Harvey, DMA unpublished material, 1997
NOTES
Created in 1946
Object File Reviewed
From Colonial to Modern art teaching packet, page 17
In the early 1900s, a few women led the way in breaking the barriers that kept women from becoming artists. Mary Cassatt, the famous impressionist painter, certainly comes to mind. Another, perhaps better-known model of the American woman artist is Georgia O'Keeffe. Splitting her time between her New York City life with husband Alfred Stieglitz and her spiritual home in Texas and New Mexico, O'Keeffe worked as a commercial artist and art teacher as she developed her interests in depicting light and patterns in nature.
1. Before reading the title, allow time to look at this painting. What do you see in this painting? (This could be something growing. This is an image of hair enlarged many hundreds of times. This is a cluster of trees. These are underwater creatures clinging to a rock shelf.)
2. By arranging lines, colors, and shapes, artists can often communicate strong feelings. Choose adjectives that describe the colors and shapes in this painting. (Adjectives might include cold, bleached out, subtle, quiet, or dull.) How does this painting make you feel? (Answers
may vary. Responses might include feelings of loneliness, coldness, hidden life, solitude, freezing cold, quiet, winter, courage, stillness, or blankness.) What sort of sounds do you
imagine hearing when you look at this painting? (Sounds could vary from rustling winds or crunching snow to complete stillness.) If these tree trunks were people, what would they be doing? (They could be talking. They would be turned inward. They could be waiting for something.)
3. The title of this painting is Bare Tree Trunks with Snow. Imagine a painting with this title in your mind. Now look again at the slide. What has the artist O'Keeffe left out? (There are no details of bark, or dirt, or broken twigs, and the picture has been painted very close to the trunks with almost no background.) Why would someone paint trees like this? (Maybe the artist only wanted us to focus on the basic shapes or qualities of trees. It shows that the artist has watched trees at times other than spring and summer. The artist might want to strip away irrelevant information and get to the true meaning of trees and how they go through cycles.)
4. This painting was made in 1946, around the time that Georgia O'Keeffe's husband Alfred Stieglitz died. Some people think that the painting may relate to his death. What do you see in the painting that could relate to death? (Students might mention that the painting looks still, cold, somber, or quiet like death. Others might say that the painting seems to suggest that there will be new life in the spring and that this could express O'Keeffe's feelings.) Stieglitz was buried beneath beech trees at his Lake George property in New York state.
Excerpt from/Adapted from/Drawn from/Sources
--------
In her legendary career, Georgia O'Keeffe worked first as a painter of flowers, shells and natural scenes in the eastern United States. After a sojourn in Texas in 1916-1918, in the late 1920s she discovered New Mexico. She went often to paint there, finally moving permanently in 1949. Her images of the barren sunlit mountain country out West have become as much a part of American mythology as Remington's cowboys. Bare Tree Trunks with Snow exemplifies her spare, taut semi-abstract style, with its flat clear areas of paint and subtle tonal shifts.
Excerpt from
Eleanor Jones Harvey, DMA label text, 1993
--------------
For O'Keeffe, 1946 was a turbulent year in which she painted few works. At the end of 1945 she had acquired the property at Abiquiu, New Mexico, that would become her winter studio and lifelong home, and was busy with its renovation. Throughout the early winter of 1946 she worked steadily with the curators at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, to select and install a major retrospective of her work - the first ever one-woman exhibition at the museum - which opened in March. These busy months culminated in the sudden death of her husband, Alfred Stieglitz, in July.
It is not entirely clear whether O'Keeffe painted "Bare Tree Trunks in Snow" before or after Stieglitz's death. In either case it is a hauntingly beautiful image of tree trunks, their roots blanketed in snow. O'Keeffe abstracted the essence of these forms by pulling in close to the trees without focusing on details; the forms are smooth, the bark dissolving into areas of soft grays and warm beige. The shallow space and cropped trees lend an ambiguity to the subject resolved only by the descriptive title (on first viewing, critic John Canaday apparently thought they were Marlene Dietrich's leg). O'Keeffe buried Stieglitz's ashes at the base of a stand of trees near his beloved Lake George, New York, making this work a fitting memorial to his life.
EJH 1997
-----------------
Taking winter-stripped trees in upstate New York as her subject, Georgia O'Keeffe simplified what she saw until what is left in this painting is an exploration of shape and color. Throughout her career, O'Keeffe united abstraction with an abiding interest in nature, creating signature, close-up images of natural forms.
Nearly twenty years after her death at age ninety-nine, O'Keeffe remains one of the most popular artists of the 20th century, both for her artwork and for her carefully crafted persona as self-reliant icon of the American Southwest.
William Keyse Rudolph, 2005
Cultures
Geography
Depicted location and place of origin: New York (state/United States): TGN: 7007568
Process/materials
Historical periods
Individuals
Subject terms
RELATED OBJECTS
PROVENANCE
From 1953: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Dallas Art Association Purchase, purchased from the Downtown Gallery, New York [1]
[1] The Dallas Art Association is the predecessor to the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts. The name was abandoned in 1970. Works from this collection were transferred to the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts. The name of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, founded in 1933, changed to the Dallas Museum of Art in 1983.
AUDIO ASSETS
UMO: 13313932 Georgia O'Keeffe: The Poetry of Things Symposium
VIDEO ASSETS
IMAGE ASSETS
WEB RESOURCES
- Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, NM~Learn more about Georgia O'Keeffe at the eponymous museum's website.
- Tate, London~This resource from Tate is a great way to introduce the work Georgia O'Keeffe to children.
ARCHIVAL RESOURCES
FUN FACTS
TEACHING IDEAS
RULES
Apply to objects where number equals 1953.1
Category
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General Description
Taking winter-stripped trees in upstate New York as her subject, Georgia O'Keeffe simplified what she saw until what is left in this painting is an exploration of shape and color. O'Keeffe abstracted the essence of these forms by pulling in close to the trees without focusing on details; the forms are smooth, the bark dissolving into areas of soft grays and warm beige. The shallow space and cropped trees lend an ambiguity to the subject resolved only by the descriptive title. Throughout her career, O'Keeffe united abstraction with an abiding interest in nature, creating signature, close-up images of natural forms.
Adapted from
- Wiliam Keyse Rudolph, DMA label copy, 2005
- Eleanor Jones Harvey, DMA unpublished material, 1997
Fun Facts
Archival Resources
Web Resources
- Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, NM~Learn more about Georgia O'Keeffe at the eponymous museum's website.
- Tate, London~This resource from Tate is a great way to introduce the work Georgia O'Keeffe to children.
Notes
Created in 1946
Object File Reviewed
From Colonial to Modern art teaching packet, page 17
In the early 1900s, a few women led the way in breaking the barriers that kept women from becoming artists. Mary Cassatt, the famous impressionist painter, certainly comes to mind. Another, perhaps better-known model of the American woman artist is Georgia O'Keeffe. Splitting her time between her New York City life with husband Alfred Stieglitz and her spiritual home in Texas and New Mexico, O'Keeffe worked as a commercial artist and art teacher as she developed her interests in depicting light and patterns in nature.
1. Before reading the title, allow time to look at this painting. What do you see in this painting? (This could be something growing. This is an image of hair enlarged many hundreds of times. This is a cluster of trees. These are underwater creatures clinging to a rock shelf.)
2. By arranging lines, colors, and shapes, artists can often communicate strong feelings. Choose adjectives that describe the colors and shapes in this painting. (Adjectives might include cold, bleached out, subtle, quiet, or dull.) How does this painting make you feel? (Answers
may vary. Responses might include feelings of loneliness, coldness, hidden life, solitude, freezing cold, quiet, winter, courage, stillness, or blankness.) What sort of sounds do you
imagine hearing when you look at this painting? (Sounds could vary from rustling winds or crunching snow to complete stillness.) If these tree trunks were people, what would they be doing? (They could be talking. They would be turned inward. They could be waiting for something.)
3. The title of this painting is Bare Tree Trunks with Snow. Imagine a painting with this title in your mind. Now look again at the slide. What has the artist O'Keeffe left out? (There are no details of bark, or dirt, or broken twigs, and the picture has been painted very close to the trunks with almost no background.) Why would someone paint trees like this? (Maybe the artist only wanted us to focus on the basic shapes or qualities of trees. It shows that the artist has watched trees at times other than spring and summer. The artist might want to strip away irrelevant information and get to the true meaning of trees and how they go through cycles.)
4. This painting was made in 1946, around the time that Georgia O'Keeffe's husband Alfred Stieglitz died. Some people think that the painting may relate to his death. What do you see in the painting that could relate to death? (Students might mention that the painting looks still, cold, somber, or quiet like death. Others might say that the painting seems to suggest that there will be new life in the spring and that this could express O'Keeffe's feelings.) Stieglitz was buried beneath beech trees at his Lake George property in New York state.
Excerpt from/Adapted from/Drawn from/Sources
--------
In her legendary career, Georgia O'Keeffe worked first as a painter of flowers, shells and natural scenes in the eastern United States. After a sojourn in Texas in 1916-1918, in the late 1920s she discovered New Mexico. She went often to paint there, finally moving permanently in 1949. Her images of the barren sunlit mountain country out West have become as much a part of American mythology as Remington's cowboys. Bare Tree Trunks with Snow exemplifies her spare, taut semi-abstract style, with its flat clear areas of paint and subtle tonal shifts.
Excerpt from
Eleanor Jones Harvey, DMA label text, 1993
--------------
For O'Keeffe, 1946 was a turbulent year in which she painted few works. At the end of 1945 she had acquired the property at Abiquiu, New Mexico, that would become her winter studio and lifelong home, and was busy with its renovation. Throughout the early winter of 1946 she worked steadily with the curators at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, to select and install a major retrospective of her work - the first ever one-woman exhibition at the museum - which opened in March. These busy months culminated in the sudden death of her husband, Alfred Stieglitz, in July.
It is not entirely clear whether O'Keeffe painted "Bare Tree Trunks in Snow" before or after Stieglitz's death. In either case it is a hauntingly beautiful image of tree trunks, their roots blanketed in snow. O'Keeffe abstracted the essence of these forms by pulling in close to the trees without focusing on details; the forms are smooth, the bark dissolving into areas of soft grays and warm beige. The shallow space and cropped trees lend an ambiguity to the subject resolved only by the descriptive title (on first viewing, critic John Canaday apparently thought they were Marlene Dietrich's leg). O'Keeffe buried Stieglitz's ashes at the base of a stand of trees near his beloved Lake George, New York, making this work a fitting memorial to his life.
EJH 1997
-----------------
Taking winter-stripped trees in upstate New York as her subject, Georgia O'Keeffe simplified what she saw until what is left in this painting is an exploration of shape and color. Throughout her career, O'Keeffe united abstraction with an abiding interest in nature, creating signature, close-up images of natural forms.
Nearly twenty years after her death at age ninety-nine, O'Keeffe remains one of the most popular artists of the 20th century, both for her artwork and for her carefully crafted persona as self-reliant icon of the American Southwest.
William Keyse Rudolph, 2005
Cultures
Geography
Depicted location and place of origin: New York (state/United States): TGN: 7007568
Process/materials
Historical periods
Individuals
Subject terms
RELATED OBJECTS
PROVENANCE
From 1953: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Dallas Art Association Purchase, purchased from the Downtown Gallery, New York [1]
[1] The Dallas Art Association is the predecessor to the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts. The name was abandoned in 1970. Works from this collection were transferred to the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts. The name of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, founded in 1933, changed to the Dallas Museum of Art in 1983.
AUDIO ASSETS
UMO: 13313932 Georgia O'Keeffe: The Poetry of Things Symposium
VIDEO ASSETS
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1953.1
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