I have always known Georgia O’Keeffe by her paintings of flowers that “unintentionally” very much resemble female genitalia. I have seen these paintings in person, both at the Tate Modern, and in small galleries in Oxford England. At all of these places, the paintings were described as resembling female genitalia. As you can imagine I became very intrigued when I came across the article “O'Keeffe's Art: Sacred Symbols and Spiritual Quest” by Celia Weisman. Not only did I think O’keeffe’s flowers were meant to portray female genitalia, I also thought she only painted flowers! In this article Weisman rarely relates O’Keeffe’s painting’s to sexual images. Instead Weisman argues “O’Keeffe’s paintings may be sensed as documents of a distinctly American spiritual experience, as well as of a more universal religious sensibility.” . Weisman makes this claim, leaning on Mircea Eliade’s (known as the historian of religions) belief that the; threshold, cosmic mountain, world tree, and sacred center symbolize something sacred or religious. Throughout the article Weisman explains how each type of O’Keeffe’s paintings incorporate these symbols of spirituality.
Weisman explains that the concept of the “sacred center” comes from the idea that being in or at the center compares to the idea of being at home , where one belongs (referring to heaven). “Without the center there could be no order and hence no sacred space, for the center makes life comprehensible by linking cosmic regions in harmonious unity.” After gaining this knowledge it is clear that O’Keeffe does have a variety of circular paintings which evoke the idea of the center. “Black Hollyhock Blue Larkspur” and many of her other flower paintings, are paintings that draw attention the center or core of the flowers. Weisman describes the center of each flower as both the heart of the flower, and the heart of all creation. Clearly Weisman’s well supported idea is far from the idea that I and many other people believe, which relates O’Keeffe’s flower paintings to female genitalia.
Next the author discusses the paintings in O’Keeffe’s collection that have mountains in them. Not only do these mountains evoke the sacred center but they are also seen as Mircea Eliade’s “cosmic mountain”. This concept comes from the idea that the mountains in O’Keeffe’s paintings always seem to join, our world and heaven. To make this a little clearer, we can compare mountains to temples. Temples are seen as a Christian icon and were generally located in the center of a town. Churches now are similar to temples, and many Christians today believe that you get to heaven through church. So, Weisman is essentially using the idea of “cosmic mountain” to say that the mountain represents a stairway to heaven.
The final idea discussed in the article is the “threshold” concept. This she describes as a painting showing boundaries. These boundaries may represent; the difference between inside and outside, youth to maturity, non belief to belief, or even birth to death. Weisman uses one of O’Keefe’s paintings of the patio door to her house in New Mexico. O’Keefe painted this door multiple times fascinated by the fact that she never could get it just right. Weisman describes the door as looking very thick which makes the viewer think that behind that door or over the “threshold” is safety or security. However she also describes the view behind the door to be very dark and mysterious, making the viewer maybe nervous. This can be seen as something relating to ones opinion of heaven. They see that entering heaven would be safe and wonderful, but the journey to heaven can sometimes be dark or mysterious like the entrance to O’Keeffe’s house in the painting.
All in all I believe Celia Weisman, did a commendable job of arguing her point that Georgia O’keeffe’s paintings may symbolize religion or contain spiritual meaning. Her argument is very convincing due to the fact that she follows all of her claims with multiple examples, explaining how each one relates directly to the painting. However many could easily dispute Weisman’s claim. Some may say her claims are all opinion based. Others may say that it is solely up to the artist to say what her paintings mean. These disputes would not be hard to argue given that one of Weisman’s opening claims stated that O’Keeffe never practiced any organized religious faith. If O’Keeffe wasn’t religious why would she paint spiritual paintings with religious symbols?
Work Cited
Weisman, Celia. "• O'Keeffe's Art: Sacred Symbols and Spiritual Quest ." Woman's Art Journal 3.2 (1983): 10-14. Web. 19 Nov 2010.
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