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rom the farmlands of Wisconsin to the other-worldly landscape of New Mex ico, which Georgia famously dubbed the " faraway," a stor y can be woven about one of the most famous artists of the modern world. e trouble is, this tale is fraught with betrayal, manipulation and drama. But that is common among artists. ey are oen tormented and torn— mostly between those around them and those within them. Husbands and wives, lovers, friends and muses all vie for aention against the artist's spirit, usually the most commanding force in his or her life. Georgia's situation was no different. By the age of 11, she was determined to become an artist. She k new resolutely that art was her calling and luck ily, her mother encouraged her to pursue that dream. Perhaps the belief in her from an early age, this empowerment, led her to forge such a brilliant path. Georgia's style is most oen characterized by her flower paintings, and particularly, the female sexuality depicted in these works. ere's no doubt that the folds and so cur ves of the images evoke the female form— specifically, female genitalia in many cases. But it is well k nown that Georgia herself vehemently denied such an association. Even if physical elements of femininity were her inspiration, she resisted having her paintings categorized so definitively. She pressed the importance of simply look ing at something from a different perspective—an oen uncomfortably close perspective is close-up and highly personal vantage point in her paintings is thought to be the influence of Paul Strand, a photographer whose searing portraits and unique perspective Georgia admired. She had met Strand while spending time at the galler y of Stieglitz, the famed photographer, art promoter, mentor to Strand, and Georgia's f uture husband. Perhaps w ith their medium in mind, she transferred a probing lens to the world of oils on canvas to create telling "portraits" of irises, calla lilies and poppies—enlarged, st ylized and tightly cropped. e photography influence of Stieglitz, however, was the least of his contributions to her artistr y and fame. It was his decision to display a series of her charcoal abstractions in his galler y in 1916 that garnered her early buzz, though the ex hibit was initially without her k nowledge and against her wishes. While it ultimately launched her career, the fact that he insisted on the show, even aer her hesitation about it, perfectly encapsulates their relationship. It was also Stieglitz who planted the seed—and then carefully sowed and watered that seed—concerning the sexual nature of her later images. He zealously used the Freudian angle in the promotion of her work. Again, acting deliberately despite her protestations. Stieglitz himself owed the resurgence of his own notoriety to Georgia. He photographed her obsessively between the years 1918 and 1925, in what was the most prolific, defining and groundbreak ing period of his career. He was married at the time, and the inordinate number of sessions spent with Georgia, specifically capturing her in all her naked glor y, is what propelled Top: At Sotheby's in 2014, Georgia's 1932 "Jimson Weed" became the most expensive painting sold at auction by a female ar tist, at $44.4 million. Opposite page: Georgia O'Keeffe, 1918, photograph by Alfred Stieglitz. " I've always been absolutely terrified every single moment of my life, and I've never let it stop me from doing a single thing I wanted to do." Subscribe at GravitasMag.com | 67