O’Keeffe discredited sexual interpretations of her flower paintings

Georgia O'Keeffe's flower paintings are often assumed to be sexual, though the artist claimed she was simply interested in highlighting the beauty of flowers that most people neglect

O'Keeffe's flowers are one of her most famous—and most misunderstood—motifs

Both critics and fans alike believed O'Keeffe's flower paintings were of female genitalia, though the artist never welcomed that interpretation. Part of the reason was that Freudian analysis was popular at the time they were first exhibited. Another was that her partner, Alfred Stieglitz, along with others in the art world, insisted on her work being erotic. Below is "Abstraction White Rose" from 1927.

O’Keeffe was part of a movement of American artists changing previous norms

One of the most recognizable names of the American modernism movement from the early 1900s, O’Keeffe’s portrayals of nature strayed from realism and prioritized emotional truth, using elements like bold colors and abstract shapes to capture the feeling of observing her subjects.

O’Keeffe’s first collection of charcoal drawings was influenced by Japanese artists

Prioritizing personal interpretations over literal ones, O’Keeffe’s abstract drawings challenged the classical approach to capturing nature in art. This initial set of drawings caught the attention of art dealer Alfred Stieglitz and forever changed the trajectory of her career.

O’Keeffe made more than 2,000 pieces of art in her lifetime

See an interactive timeline that provides insight into just how prolific the artist was. Differentiated by year, the visualization shows when she was particularly active, and allows you to see the artwork from each year. Below is "Oriental Poppies" from 1928.

O’Keeffe’s journey to become an artist started at a young age in Wisconsin

In 1905, she left behind her life on the farm to attend art school in Chicago. While studying, the artist won the William Merritt Chase prize for a still life. Her style eventually evolved and caught the attention of important figures in the New York art scene.

Georgia O'Keeffe's subjects evolved based on the landscapes she lived in

Texas horizons, New York skyscrapers, and New Mexico deserts are examples of the subjects O'Keeffe famously painted over the course of her life. While her style remained mostly consistent throughout her seven-decade career, her surroundings significantly changed the content of her artwork.

'Ram’s Head, White Hollyhock—Hills' marked a shift in O’Keeffe’s life and work

After a severe drought in the 1930s killed many animals near her home, O’Keeffe started collecting and painting their skulls. Her new style was interpreted as surreal and even macabre by many, presenting a shocking turn from her lighthearted flower portraits.

O’Keeffe collected animal skulls and bones for her art

O’Keeffe used bones as motifs in her work throughout her time in New Mexico. She famously stated, “The bones do not symbolize death to me. They are shapes that I enjoy … They're very lively.”

O’Keeffe’s relationship with a younger Juan Hamilton caused controversy

Juan Hamilton was broke, divorced and 27 years old when he met an 85-year-old O’Keeffe to ask for a job. She eventually gave him one, and they developed a close friendship and artistic partnership, while also fueling rumors of a romantic relationship. After she died, he received her house and a large portion of her estate.

Listen to the experiences of an art historian who met Georgia O'Keeffe

Wanda M. Corn wrote the biography "Georgia O'Keeffe: Living Modern" and recounts her experience interviewing the artist in New Mexico. Hear interesting details from an O'Keeffe expert, including specifics about her clothes, her home and her upbringing.

One Mary Cassatt painting features a sly political message

Critics had long been puzzled by the unrealistic flower pinned to the woman's chest in the 1905 painting "Mother and Child." In exploring the painting's history, researcher Nikki Georgopulos discovered that the flower alluded to a women's suffrage badge popular at the time, something Cassatt emphasized in the painting's original title, "Woman With a Sunflower."

Georgia O'Keeffe and her sisters had an artistic rivalry

Despite their close relationship, a rift between the siblings emerged after Ida and Catherine, Georgia's younger sisters, began exhibiting their own paintings. Some also speculate that their dynamic was influenced by Georgia's husband, Alfred Stieglitz, who expressed romantic interest in Ida.

O'Connor raised 40 peacocks, which became symbols for her fiction

O'Connor was drawn to peacocks because of their dichotomy—people were drawn to the beauty of their feathers but turned off by the ugliness of their behavior. It was an apt symbol for her fiction and the birds featured prominently on several of her books' covers.

American short story writer Flannery O'Connor raised 40 peacocks, which became potent symbols for her fiction's elegant violence

O’Connor despised romantic portrayals of the South

1939’s “Gone With the Wind” presented a rosy image of the Old South, something a 14-year-old O’Connor allegedly despised. Later, she wrote “A Late Encounter With the Enemy,” a story mocking how Confederate Army veterans were honored at the film’s premiere.

The 'Old Guitarist' challenged art's standards of beauty

For much of Western art history, the definition of “beauty” in art was dictated by academies rather than personal taste. Artists like Picasso challenged these standards with works considered “ugly” for discarding anatomical accuracy or linear perspective in favor of a feeling.

Photographer captures glowing flowers in ultraviolet light

Debora Lombardi utilizes ultraviolet light to reveal unseen colors in flowers, re-shaping their natural beauty. Beginning during the lockdown of March 2020, Lombardi's experimentation evolved, culminating in a series recognized by the World Photography Organization. Her work highlights vibrant purples, blues, and yellows, transforming flowers into surreal, otherworldly specimens by exposing them to UV light in her Italy-based studio.

In 'Cut Piece,' Yoko Ono invited the audience to her clothes

Much more than simply John Lennon’s partner, Yoko Ono is a prolific multimedia artist in her own right. Her 1964 performance "Cut Piece" invited audience members to come onstage and cut away pieces of her clothing. She described the piece as being about solidarity between women and the possibility for world peace, saying, “By not fighting, we show them that there's a whole world, which could exist by being peaceful.”

Jasper Johns’ works often captured familiar symbols and made them abstract

Some of pop art’s most famous works toy with the push and pull between recognizable and hidden. ARTnews dissects seven well-known pieces by Jasper Johns—including works of American flags and maps—to explore the relationship between obvious iconography and invited analysis common to the genre.

How Van Gogh painted 'Irises' in an asylum

Van Gogh’s painting titled “Irises” (1889) remains one of his most-recognized works. Created soon after the artist checked himself into an asylum, the oil painting depicts flowers from the overgrown garden in the institution. Discover more about the work and other masterpieces Van Gogh constructed during a personally tumultuous time.

In 'Life of a Showgirl,' Taylor Swift nods to Pre-Raphaelite muse Elizabeth Siddal

Born in 1829, Siddal was an artist and poet who would become immortalized when she modeled for John Everett Millais' 1852 painting 'Ophelia,' depicting the suicidal lover from Shakespeare's 'Hamlet.' For years, Swift has alluded to Siddal as an exemplar of the sidelined female artist.

Listen to 3 scholars discuss the work of Emily Dickinson

Fiona Green, Linda Freedman, and Paraic Finnerty—three British academics who study Dickinson—discuss the poet's life, distinctive writing style, and impact on the generations who followed, illustrating that part of Dickinson's appeal lies in her open-ended verse, which invites readers' many interpretations.

Margaret Keane outwitted her plagiarist husband by recreating her work in a courtroom

The artist, known for her portraits of large-eyed children, sued her ex-husband, who claimed he was the real artist. The judge asked them to both paint in court to demonstrate the real artist. Her ex-husband declined; Keane painted a work in 53 minutes and was awarded $4M.

Some Harlem Renaissance figures criticized Zora Neale Hurston's most famous novel when it was released

Zora Neale Hurston's "Their Eyes Were Watching God" is now considered one of the masterpieces of the Harlem Renaissance, though some in the movement criticized it when it was released in 1937. Both Alain Locke and the writer Richard Wright felt that Hurston's novel lacked depth. Wright was particularly harsh, writing that "her novel carries no theme, no message, no thought. In the main, her novel is not addressed to the Negro, but to a white audience whose chauvinistic tastes she knows how to satisfy."

Dorothea Lange's photos of US concentration camps were censored

Lange, who took some of the most iconic photos of the 20th century, was hired by the United States government in 1942 to document the "relocation" of Japanese-Americans into concentration camps. When military commanders saw her work, however, they censored it, even suggesting some of the images should be "Impounded."

Reactions to Abramovic’s work range from adoration to religious scorn

Abramović’s willingness to mainstream transgressive and symbolic work has inspired many, but some have also interpreted that same work as ridiculous, pretentious, or even Satanic.

The Mona Lisa's celebrity status and repeated restorations have obscured what made the painting so revolutionary for its time

See the most iconic photos from four decades of LIFE magazine

American dance legend Martha Graham, sometimes called 'the Picasso of dance,' refused to perform at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and conceived the piece 'Chronicle' in response to the experience.

The story of Dollree Mapp, whose legal challenge over her 1957 conviction for possessing "obscene material" led to a major strengthening of the Fourth Amendment

Dorothy's famous entrance into Oz in 'The Wizard of Oz' relied on analog tricks, including a body double and sepia-toned paint, as much as it did on technology

See these 16 pieces of art evoking phobias of snakes, flying, spiders, and more. 

The 19th-century painters of the Hudson River School were among the first American romantics, with portraits that displayed the natural beauty of the young country.

Sunflowers have long been a symbol of nuclear disarmament because they can extract large amounts of radioactive cesium from soil.

20,000 letters to the advice columnist 'Dear Abby' provide insight into prevailing sex, religion, and LGBTQ fears, anxieties, and concerns from the 1950s onward.

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

Frank Lloyd Wright's houses are historically hard to sell because they're old, subject to local landmark commissions, and often unfashionable

Comedy legend Catherine O'Hara, star of 'Schitt's Creek' and 'Home Alone,' quit 'Saturday Night Live' after just one week to return to her old job.

Poison ivy was sent to Europe in the 1600s as an exotic, ornamental oddity, where it was purposefully grown in the English royal gardens at Kew, the Faculty of Medicine in Paris, and a few other locations.

'Saturday Night Fever,' the 1977 film that introduced disco to the mainstream, was based on a fabricated magazine story.

Up to a million Girl Scouts sell about 200 million cookie boxes every spring, generating $800 million, largely because refusing a child is frowned upon

Explore the known asteroids, comets, and spacecraft involved in asteroid studies within our solar system with 'Eyes on Asteroids,' a 3D visualization from NASA.

Prince's sexually explicit 1984 track 'Darling Nikki' attracted the ire of the Parents Music Resource Center, an advocacy group that inspired the Parental Advisory sticker, even though the song ends with a Christian message.

English mathematician Ada Lovelace wrote the first computer algorithm a century before computers existed and hypothesized that computing devices would one day be able to compose music—foreseeing the generative AI systems of today.

The Beatles' US label rejected the band's first two singles, 'Please Please Me' and 'From Me to You,' with one executive calling the band 'dead in the water.'

Firework or sparkler burns, even if they cover a relatively small area of skin, can significantly affect our range of motion.

Existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre coined the famous phrase 'Hell is—other people' in his play 'No Exit'

Coral reefs get their colors from zooxanthellae—microorganisms that line corals' digestive tracts and provide them with sugars in exchange for a home within this protective tissue.

Cultural norms about how to handle the bodies of loved ones in communities in West Africa have hampered Ebola responses.