The White Flower (White Trumpet Flower)

Georgia O'Keeffe, 1887–1986

After studying at the Art Institute of Chicago, Georgia O’Keeffe spent time intermittently in New York City, where she met the photographer Alfred Stieglitz, who promoted her art. Though she created images of the urban environment in the 1920s, after 1929 O’Keeffe lived in New Mexico during the summer, and in 1946 she moved there permanently.

Much of her extensive artistic productions became focused on diverse elements of the natural world: animal bones, shells, desert, sky, and most frequently, flowers. She often enlarged flowers, making a single flower dominate the entire pictorial space. With The White Flower,O’Keeffe explores the beauty of nature and emphasizes formal qualities such as shape, color, and line.

The San Diego Museum of Art possesses three other works by the artist: Barn with Snow (1934), Purple Hills (1935), and In the Patio I (1946).

View a discussion of The White Flower by Amy Galpin, Associate Curator, Art of the Americas.