Georgia O'Keeffe made a set of paintings of

Palo Duro Canyon Palo Duro Canyon is a canyon system of the Caprock Escarpment located in the Texas Panhandle near the cities of Amarillo, Texas, Amarillo and Canyon, Texas, Canyon. As the second-largest canyon in the United States, it is roughly long and has an ...

while working as a department head and art instructor at

West Texas State Normal College West Texas A&M University (WTAMU or WT) is a public university in Canyon, Texas. It is the northernmost campus of the Texas A&M University System and accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, Southern Association of Colleges ...

. The vibrant paintings reflect her development as an

Abstract Expressionist Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of the ...

, influenced by Arthur Wesley Dow.

Background

While working at West Texas State Normal College between 1916 and 1918, O'Keeffe lived in

Canyon, Texas Canyon is a city in, and the county seat of, Randall County, Texas, United States. The population was 14,836 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Amarillo, Texas, metropolitan statistical area. Canyon is the home of West Texas A&M University and ...

and often visited Palo Duro Canyon, which became a source of inspiration for her paintings that helped her develop as an abstract artist. She made 51 watercolors while living in Canyon. Carolyn Kastner, curator of "Georgia O'Keeffe’s Far Wide Texas", states that "she was at the peak of her commitment to abstraction" at that time. Now a state park, it is the second largest canyon in the United States and is called the "Grand Canyon of Texas". The canyon is deep, up to wide, and long. Within the canyon are rock formations, giant boulders, and ''

hoodoos A hoodoo (also called a tent rock, fairy chimney, or earth pyramid) is a tall, thin spire of rock formed by erosion. Hoodoos typically consist of relatively soft rock topped by harder, less easily eroded stone that protects each column from the ...

''. There are also multicolored layers of white gypsum, bright red claystone, and lavender, gray, yellow ochre mudstone. She had said that this time in Texas was highly creative, one where she felt the freedom to explore her feelings and different forms. O'Keeffe traveled to Palo Duro Canyon, from Canyon, with friends, on farmer's hay wagons, or by walking the distance.

Overview

Inspired by the principles of Arthur Wesley Dow and the Texas landscape, O'Keeffe made paintings using vibrant red, blue and yellow colors. About 1916, she used brilliant red and yellow colors in ''Special #21: Palo Duro Canyon'', which belongs to the New Mexico Museum of Art. It was stolen in December 2003 and has not been recovered. ''Red Landscape'' is an abstract expressionist oil painting made in 1916–1917 of the bright red canyon walls, which are the Permian Red Beds from the Jurassic era. A yellow sun shines below a dark sky. ''Canyon with Crows'', a watercolor made in 1917, "depicts a deep purple arroyo that lightens higher to yellows and orange while impressionistic black crows hover in a pale blue sky." McNay Art Museum in San Antonio held the "O'Keeffe and Texas" exhibit, curated by art historian Sharyn Udall in 1998 show. In 2016, the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum exhibited some of the works from Palo Duro Canyon in the "Georgia O'Keeffe’s Far Wide Texas" exhibit, the theme of which was "Becoming a Modern Artist". It was curated by Carolyn Kastner. The ''Georgia O’Keeffe: Watercolors 1916-1918'' catalog, with more than 40 full-scale reproductions, accompanied the exhibit.

Background

Overview

References

Further reading