O'KEEFFE, Georgia

Apparently learning from photography about the esthetic advantages of enlargement, O'Keeffe discovered formal qualities and radiant colors in the extremely close observations of biomorphic objects, such as flowers, plants, and pelvic bones. O'Keeffe often painted similar objects many times over, in series. Moving to rural New Mexico in the late 1940s, she again echoed photography by using the contrary strategy of painting broad expanses in a compressed scale. These paintings in turn echo her remarkably...