Author Description

Until very recently, an extraordinary and important series of Georgia O'Keefe's paintings was unknown even to her most ardent admirers. Rediscovered in 1987, the twenty-eight watercolors, now known as the Canyon Suite, shed light on a seminal period of the artist's life and early career. In addition to being a turning point in O'Keefe's painting style, these watercolors are also among the first abstract works of any American artist. They are at once a stirring vision of the light, landscape, and scale of the plains of the Southwest and an intimate emotional tableau - in turns majestic and hauntingly vast. Accompanying these paintings are excerpts from the writings of such authors and artists as Wassily Kandinsky and Arthur Wesley Dow, who lent O'Keefe inspiration, and Willa Cather and Edward Abbey, who shared her gift for interpreting the most profound qualities of nature and landscapes. The works in this volume are also enriched by Georgia O'Keefe's own musings, excerpted from letters and essays that passionately describe her impressions of the landscape and sky of the Southwest during her years spent in Canyon, Texas.