Georgia O’Keeffe

The year 1987 marked the centennial of the birth of Georgia O’Keeffe, one of our nation’s best known and inventive artists, and this book of her art celebrates that event. Approximately 120 color and 20 black-and-white illustrations. ** ISBN 0-8212-1686-4. ** Amazon One should not commit the injustice of calling this an exhibition catalog, because it stands so well apart from the splendid traveling collection it accompanies. This is a book of wonders in many respects. The essays illuminate selected corners of O’Keeffe’s life and art. The letters, full of vivacity, keen insight, and hard thinking, show how she saw her life and chose to live. Above all are the brilliantly reproduced paintings; easily seen as sensual, they are also tightly controlled visions of color and form, monumental and deeply intellectual. It is far too easy to make O’Keeffe a cultural icon instead of seeing her as one of the America’s two or three greatest artists. This book argues the latter with sweet force. GraceAnne A. DeCandido,”Library Journal”.