When Georgia OÆKeeffe painted Grey Hill Forms in 1936, she was already at the height of a career that brought her both popular and critical acclaim. In 1929, she spent the summer in Taos, New Mexico and was overwhelmed by the unique visual experience the landscapes provided. She affectionately referred to the land of northern New Mexico as "the faraway"à a place of stark beauty and infinite space. Her sources of imagery lie in the world of nature, but nature interpreted with great freedom. Georgia found the thin, dry air enabled her to see farther. Her art expressed these personal emotions and perceptions in a completely individual style that combines both strength and crystalline clarity. In Grey Hill Forms, OÆKeeffe utilizes traditional ideas of light and space in contrast with innovative non-objective elements.
Like many other early American modernists, OÆKeeffe was fueled by post-impressionistic goals. She had realized by 1915 that all of her work was influenced by someone else. Although she had earlier won awards for her still life work, Georgia was dissatisfied with casual reality as subject matter and was determined to paint her personal rural experience. "I realized that I had a lot of things in my head that others didnÆt have," she said. "I made up my mind to put down what was in my head." She was one of the first artists to explore the possibilities of non-objectivity, and thus was one of the considerable contributors to visionary modernism.
In Grey Hill Forms, Georgia OÆKeeffe begins with the traditionally painterly ideals. Strong diagonal lines of recession draw the eye through the scene to create a smoothly three dimensional space. Warm yellows and greens recede into deeper indigos and cool grays. Dramatic contrasts in light and tone aid in the formation of space without overburdening the scene or creating ambiguity.
Despite having these elements, OÆKeeffe strays from the painterly model in order to include her personal experience. The strong lines throughout give the images more conceptual meaning. The sharpness and clarity of the figures demonstrate W÷lfflinÆs idea of linearity. The mountains are tangible and solid, clearly separated from both the foreground and deep solid sky. She models them so that they posses substance and weight. She carves their deep, intricate folds into powerful sculptural creations. Perspective and light source are both frontal, dramatizing both the depth and clarity in the painting. Brushstrokes are undetectable: absolute clarity is created through line, form, light and color. Her lucidity never becomes a mannerism; it is an innate characteristic of her personal vision. In Grey Hill Forms, it is the revolutionary manipulation of scale that creates the flawless unity. The motif is pictured realistically but in an unreal, imaginative context; magnified beyond its actual dimensions, removed from any surrounding or setting. "If I could paint a flower exactly as I see it no one would see what I see because I would paint it small like a flower is small. So I said to myself-IÆll paint what I see-what the flower is to me but IÆll paint it big and they will be surprised into taking time to look at it-I will make even busy New Yorkers take time to see what I see of flowers." In a kind of selective realism, she is more concerned with the essential identity of things rather than the mere visual appearance. In this manner, photographic illusion is completely disregarded in favor of basic form.
An instinctual painter, suspicious of intellectual approaches to art, she was an introspective and independent visionary who thrived on isolation. Ironically, few artists ever receive the universal acclaim which she did from both critics and contemporary art collectors from the very first. This enduring interest combined with accessible and easily sentimentalized work such as Grey Hill Forms has led to the trivialization of an important body of work created by a significant female artist. Throughout the over seventy years of her creative career, Georgia OÆKeeffe continually made some of the most original contributions to the art of our time.
