November 15, 1887 – March 6, 1986.

Artist.

Georgia O'Keeffe is considered one of America's most influential artists of the 20th century, who promoted new ideas of abstraction and helped redefine modern art. O'Keeffe may be the most recognized for her work done in New York and the Southwest, but the time she spent during her early life in Chicago had a major influence on her work.

O'Keeffe was born in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin in 1887. At seventeen she came to Chicago to attend the School of the Art Institute. Here, O'Keeffe studied anatomical drawing and composition under John Vanderpoel, ranking first woman in her class. The School's emphasis on intense instruction in anatomical drawing is evident throughout her body of work. O'Keeffe contracted typhoid fever and left Chicago after one year of studying at the School to heal and regain strength. She returned to Chicago in 1908 to work at an industrial company, drawing designs for lace and embroidery. Although she only spent one year at the School of the Art Institute, she developed a loyalty to the institution, which culminated with very generous gifts many decades later.

Chicago exposed O'Keeffe to many aesthetic and architectural styles that can be recognized in her work. At the time, The School of the Art Institute was a leader in modern ideas in the decorative arts, like Art Nouveau and the Prairie School. A strong local influence on O'Keeffe was the architecture of Louis Sullivan and his contemporaries. The Carson Pirie Scott building, with it's rich design and ornamentation, was already a central landmark in downtown Chicago.

After her time in Chicago, Georgia O'Keeffe went on to the University of Virginia and became an art teacher for a few years in Texas, Virginia and South Carolina, until 1916, the year of her first exhibition as a professional artist. In 1917 she met Alfred Stieglitz in New York and they married in 1924. After Stieglitz's death in 1946, O'Keeffe moved permanently to New Mexico. In 1947 and subsequent years, she donated her late husband's art collection and his immense body of photographic works to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Art Institute of Chicago

The Art Institute is not only the home to several of O'Keeffe's paintings, but also held her first retrospective in 1943. She died in New Mexico in 1986 at age 98. A large retrospective exhibition showing more than 100 works by O'Keeffe traveled to Washington DC, Chicago, Dallas, and New York from 1987 to 1989.

1. Daniel Catton Rich, Georgia O'Keeffe Paintings 1915-1941. Exhibition Catalogue from her first museum retrospective, at the Art Institute of Chicago, 1943 [p. 1 of 2].
2. Daniel Catton Rich, Georgia O'Keeffe Paintings 1915-1941. Exhibition Catalogue from her first museum retrospective, at the Art Institute of Chicago, 1943 [p. 2 of 2].
3. Art Institute of Chicago News Release for Georgia O'Keeffe's Exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago, opened January 21, 1943 [p.1 of 2].
4. Art Institute of Chicago News Release for Georgia O'Keeffe's Exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago, opened January 21, 1943 [p.2 of 2].
5. Letter from Georgia O'Keeffe to Daniel Catton Rich, director of the Art Institute of Chicago, August 10, 1948 [p.1 of 4].
6. Letter from Georgia O'Keeffe to Daniel Catton Rich, director of the Art Institute of Chicago, August 10, 1948 [p.2 of 4].
7. Letter from Georgia O'Keeffe to Daniel Catton Rich, director of the Art Institute of Chicago, August 10, 1948 [p.3 of 4].
8. Letter from Georgia O'Keeffe to Daniel Catton Rich, director of the Art Institute of Chicago, August 10, 1948 [p.4 of 4].
9. Georgia O'Keeffe, by Alfred Stieglitz, 1918.
10. Georgia O'Keeffe with John Duncan, Director of Admissions, and Roger Gilmore, Dean of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, during one of O'Keeffe's frequent visits to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1967.