Georgia O'Keeffe artwork from 1919 entitled 1987-70-3-CX. Red and Orange streak with some green and yellow.
RED AND ORANGE STREAK Two wide bands of orange curve up from the lower left, then shoot out of the painting at the upper right. In between them, a yellow Z shape is placed at an angle. It catches our eye because it is so bright against the dark background and it seems to be moving! Behind, a strip of dark red extends quietly from one side of the painting to the other, like a horizon line. Look how the orange arcs and the red band form a cross with four arms that stretch out into the darkness and touch three sides of the canvas. The focal point of the painting is the angular, yellow form that overlaps the red band and the black background. Red and Orange Streak was painted in 1919, soon after she moved from Texas to New York City. She had been greatly impressed by the wide-open plains of Texas, especially at night when she took long walks by herself. In the pitch-black darkness, certain sounds like a train whistle or cattle lowing for their calves suggested shapes and colors to her. Storms, which can be seen approaching from far away in the flat Texas landscape, also fascinated her. The sky was like an enormous canvas, and the lightning appeared to be giant, jagged writing scrawled across it, just for an instant. In a letter to a friend, O’Keeffe wrote: “the whole thing lit up, first in one place then in another with flashes of lightning sometimes just sheet lightning and sometimes sheet lightning with a sharp bright zigzag flashing across. I sat on the fence for a long time just looking at the lightning.” Back in New York City, O’Keeffe remembered the natural world that had surrounded her in Texas and she wanted to express her intense responses to that environment. She did this by abstracting, or simplifying, what she had seen, heard, and felt there and by eliminating details. Philadelphia Museum of Art
Size: 4225px × 4960px
Photo credit: © steeve-x-art / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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