Depressing Badlands: Assignment 8

Thomas Tiernan

O’Keeffe vs Kollwitz

Assignment 8

            Georgia O’Keeffe and Kathe Kollwitz were inspirational artists of the late 19^th and early 20^th century. O’Keeffe was born on a farm in Wisconsin and studied art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She received her fame after her friend showed her art to Stieglitz. Alfred Stieglitz was an American photographer and modern art promoter who later married O’Keeffe. In 1917, Stieglitz granted O’Keeffe her own exhibit, which was the beginning of her extraordinary artistic success. O’Keeffe enjoyed painting Texas and New Mexico landscapes. The scenery of New Mexico inspired O’Keeffe and she spent part of the year there panting the badlands. 

This painting is of the New Mexico badlands, and the choice in color is unique to me. She chooses black and very dark colors for the background but a vibrant adobe red for the wavy hills in the front.  To me, it symbolizes night and day. Her popular paintings feature objects enlarged and painted as if viewed through a magnifying glass. One of her well-known painting is called, Deer’s Skull with Pedernal, which she painted in 1936 with oil on canvas. I enjoy this painting especially because of the fading transition of blue sky to white clouds, and the relieved symmetry of the deer skull.

            Kathe Kollwitz was born July 8, 1867 in East Prussia. She devoted herself primarily to graphic art after 1890. She is regarded as one of the most important German artists of the 20^th century. After looking through her drawings, I notice a depressing pattern in her work. She chooses black as her primary color choice, and most of art depicts the hard times she must have endured. Kollwitz identified passionately with the sufferings of working people and the struggle of women to protect their children. Kollwitz concentrated on drawings and prints, unlike O’Keefe and her paintings. Her famous self-portrait with her hand on her head reminds me of Leonardo Da Vinci’s sketches.

I also noticed her maternal influence in her art because a lot of her drawings has women holding onto their children.

      For example, Survivors shows a mother grasping her three children with blindfolded people in the background. I believe most of her drawings are dark and gloomy because she had to bear the bad news of her son’s death in WW1 and even her grandson’s death in WW2. I personally am not a fan of her work because I enjoy bright colors and happier themes, but Kollwitz’s drawings have an abundance of emotion that one can tell instantly just by looking at them. Her drawings leave a lasting impact on people.