Louisiana Museum of Modern Art
Georgia O'keefe – Two Calla Lilies on Pink (1928)
- Description
- Specifications
- The Maker
O'Keeffe's images are known to many—as is the myth about her: the aristocratic, independent woman in the New Mexico desert. Her pictures radiate the special persistent concentration that surrounds them. They insist on the emotional power of the simple motif.
When Georgia O'Keeffe paints flowers, she is of course related to centuries of flower painters. But she is different anyway. She blows up the flowers. Blows up the bouquet and focuses unrestrained on the detail. Macro and micro flow together in a new space of color, rhythm and composition. It is a flower—and yet a painting.
O'Keeffe's pictures are elaborate. She is phenomenally meticulous and her pictures are not spontaneous. She uses sketches and mixes colors endlessly before going to the canvas. She wants to arrive at a very specific image. So she works in series. Repeating petals, seashells, clouds, branches, leaves, mountains.
For Georgia O'Keeffe, it's all about bringing out a feeling. You may not be able to depict the feeling directly, hold it, but you can set it in motion by repetition, as with a musical theme.
- Brand:Louisiana Museum of Modern Art Denmark
- Country: Printed in Denmark
- SKU: LA-108018-FJ-OH
- Material: Printed on paper.
- Dimensions:33.1" x 23.4" (A1)
From the beginning, the founder, Knud W. Jensen, intended for the museum to be a home for modern Danish art. But after only a few years he changed course, and instead of being a predominantly Danish collection, Louisiana became an international museum with many internationally renowned works.
Louisiana's close contact and collaboration with the international arts and cultural milieu has since been one of the museum's greatest strengths. And also one of the main reasons that it has been possible for Louisiana to present an exhibition program that has resonated so strongly with the public over the years. Louisiana has thus achieved a standing as one of the world's most respected exhibition venues, and in the future, it will be able to attract exhibitions and artists at a level that few other museums—either in Denmark or abroad—can match.
Knud W. Jensen put into action many of the period's visionary ideas about modern museum operation, including a desire for art to have a wide audience. It has always been the view at Louisiana that art is not just for an elite but includes experiences and visions for the many.
Why is it called Louisiana?
Many people wonder about the name of the museum. The short explanation is this—a nobleman and his three wives.
Knud W. Jensen chose to "take over" the name of the country house that he later converted to a museum. The property had been built and named in 1855 by Alexander Brun (1814-93), who was an officer and Master of the Royal Hunt and who married three women who were all named Louise.
Here at Louisiana, he was a pioneer in beekeeping and the cultivation of fruit trees.
From the beginning, it was Knud W. Jensen's vision to create a museum with soul, where the public could encounter artwork—not as something pretentious, but rather something that spoke directly to the viewer. And he emphasized the need for "supplementary content" that could help bring alive and enrich the environment: The more opportunities for experience that the program offers, the more Louisiana lives up to its idea—to be a 'musical meeting place' and a milieu that is engaged in contemporary life.
—Knud W. Jensen
