O"Keeffes work has been a source of great influence is American art as-well as topic of great controversy surrounding hidden meanings that could be secreted in her works. Showing the great range of distortion techniques used in the Tate exhibition O Keeffes distortion is not a artificial distortion O"Keeffe's work centres round natural objects, skulls, shells and flowers to name a few. O"Keeffe's work centres around still-life, the reason she is included in this exhibition though is because O"Keeffe was not satisfied with just showing what she could see, she wanted to magnify what she could see till we could no longer see a flower, but a series of patterns and colours.
O"Keeffe was always very interested in the natural world. .
O "Keeffe was born in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin on November 15, 1887. She knew from an early age she wanted to be an artist, even though she couldn't pinpoint exactly why she wanted to be one. Her aptitude for art was noted by her teacher who catered to her artistic temperament. Sometimes O"Keeffe would work intensely and produce copious amounts of work, sometimes she would not work for days. After graduation she travelled around the US, her works were displayed in various exhibitions and enrolling in art institutions. In 1918 she left her teaching job in Texas and went to new York with a man named Alfred Stieglitz, a photographer who was well-respected in the art community thanks to his magazine "Camera works" and his 291 gallery which had introduced America to the works of Picasso, Cezanne and Mattise. Stieglitz became in some respects O"Keeffe's manager as-well as partner. He began to arrange shows for her work to be exhibited and sell her paintings. O"Keeffe began to paint her large flower painting around this time. These pieces would become some of her most popular work. She soon began exhibiting these paintings and in 1928 a .
Calla Lily painting sold for $25,000, drawing much media attention to O"Keeffe's work.