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Georgia Totto O’Keeffe was born
November 15, 1887 on a dairy farm outside of Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, the second of seven children -
Art education as a child
By the time O’Keeffe reached the age of 16 years, she had received 5 years of art training at various schools -
Graduated from high school
O’Keeffe graduated high school in 1905 and moved to live with an aunt in Chicago so she could study at the Art Institute of Chicago -
Change of plans...
O’Keeffe, however was stricken with Typhoid and did not return to the Art Institute of Chicago in 1907. Instead she moved to New York to study with the Art Student League. -
O'Keeffe wins first award
In 1908, O’Keeffe won the League’s William Merritt Chase still-life prize for her oil painting Untitled (Dead Rabbit with Copper Pot). -
O'Keeffe teaches
From 1912 to 1914, O’Keeffe worked as a teacher of drawing and penmanship in the public schools in Amarillo, Texas. During those summers, O’Keeffe worked as assistant to Alon Bement of Teachers College, Columbia University. During this time O’Keeffe met Arthur Wesley Dow who introduced her to the idea that art is the expression of the artist’s personal ideas and feelings and that such subject matter is best realized through harmonious arrangements of line, color, and notan (the Japanese system -
O'Keeffe returns to NY
From the fall of 1914 to June of 1915, O’Keeffe returned to New York to attend Teachers College. O’Keeffe began teaching art at Columbia University during the fall of 1915. During this time, O’Keeffe began to experiment with Dow’s theories. She produced a series of abstract charcoal drawings that are now considered to be some of the most innovative in all American art of that time period. O’Keeffe mailed some of the drawings to her friend Anita Pollitzer who showed them to internationally re -
O'Keeffe begins to use watercolor
By this time, O’Keeffe was teaching art at the West Texas State Normal College in Canyon, Texas. During her time in Texas, O’Keeffe abandoned charcoal and began to use watercolor in her paintings. -
O'Keeffe's romance
In 1917, Stieglitz closed his 291 Gallery with a one-man exhibit of O’Keeffe’s Texas watercolors. As their correspondence continued, Stieglitz became enamored of O’Keeffe and he eventually offered her financial support for one year to would come to New York to paint. O’Keeffe accepted and moved in with Stieglitz. -
O'Keeffe is married
They fell in love (he more so than she) and married in 1924. During this time O’Keeffe painted New York cityscapes and the view of Lake George (the summer residence of the Stieglitz family). She also began to paint flowers of every type. -
O'Keeffe spends the summer in New Mexico
However, by 1928, O’Keeffe was struggling to find new material to paint. Consequently, in the summer of 1929, she and friend Beck Strand traveled by train to New Mexico. They were eventually invited to spend the remainder of the summer at the ranch of Mabel Dodge Luhan. That summer forever changed the life of Georgia O’Keeffe. O’Keeffe traveled to New Mexico every summer thereafter until the death of Stieglitz in 1946 -
O'Keeffe has shows
From 1923 until his death in 1946, Stieglitz worked tirelessly to arrange annual shows for O’Keeffe. -
O'Keeffe settled husbands estate
O’Keeffe traveled to New Mexico every summer thereafter until the death of Stieglitz in 1946. At that time she took three years to settle his estate before moving to New Mexico for good. -
O'Keeffe travels
By 1951, O’Keeffe was again feeling wanderlust and began a decade of worldwide travel. -
O'Keeffe's eyesight starts to fail
In 1971, O’Keeffe’s eyesight began to fail and by 1972 she was no longer able to paint. However, she met a potter by the name of Juan Hamilton who became her personal assistant. Hamilton introduced her to clay potting, so O’Keeffe was able to become a three-dimensional artist for the last years of her life. -
O'Keeffe honored
In 1977, O’Keeffe received the Medal of Freedom from President Ford -
Georgia O'Keeffe's Death
She died in Santa Fe in 1986. Georgia O’Keeffe was 98 years old. -
Georgia O'Keeffe Museum
The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum opened in Santa Fe, New Mexico on March 17, 1997.
