Author Description

Georgia O'Keeffe: Canyon Suite presents a collection of 28 previously unknown and unpublished watercolors painted by Georgia O'Keeffe between 1916-1918. The group was produced in the period during which O'Keeffe taught at West Texas State Normal College in Canyon, Texas. When O'Keeffe left Canyon, in 1918, to move to New York she presented 28 watercolors painted in Canyon as a gift to student Ted Reid, a close, possibly intimate friend. The watercolors subsequently remained in Reid's family until 1988, wrapped in brown paper, in the family's garage. In Georgia O'Keeffe: Canyon Suite, all 28 watercolors are beautifully reproduced, in full color, for the first time.. The unexpected reappearance of the Canyon Suite provides a remarkable opportunity to witness the first mature and independent phases of O'Keeffe's career. These extraordinary works demonstrate her mastery of early influences, her gradual rejection of academic training, and her experimentation with various methods of image making, from representational landscapes and recognizable subject matter to abstracted images of natural phenomena.