Gender (według) Georgii O’Keeffe: (cudzy) obraz a (własne) słowo artystki
Gender of / by Georgia O’Keeffe: The Image (of Someone Else’s) and the Artist’s (Own) Words

Author(s): Edyta Frelik
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: Georgia O’Keeffe; American modernism; gender stereotype; gendered reading
Summary/Abstract: The article discusses the history of controversial interpretations of Georgia O’Keeffe’s oeuvre through the lens of the categories of sex and body. It highlights the striking similarity between early readings of her work by – mostly male – artists and critics active in the first few decades of the twentieth century and those of 1970s feminists re-interpreting her paintings according to newly defined, “gendered” standards. The author describes how O’Keeffe defied the persistent sexist stereotypes throughout her long career, both in her written statements and in her visual works, demonstrating intellectual competence and insightfulness, which her male colleagues did not expect of her (and often denied). Especially, many of her flower paintings were envisaged by her as an ironic rebuke to skewed analyses of their alleged sexual connotations. Only in recent years attempts have been made by a new generation of critics to reconsider O’Keeffe’s themes and strategies as responses to the challenges posed by the historical moment.

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