Art With Bre: Georgia O’Keeffe and Kathe Kollwitz: Two Ends of One World

Breanna Castaneda

Terry Long

ARTH 102.01

5 November 2013

Georgia O’Keeffe and Kathe Kollwitz: Two Ends of One World

Two of the most interesting female artists, Georgia O’Keeffe and Kathe Kollwitz, could not be the better subjects for this essay. Georgia O’Keeffe had an incredibly satisfying life; she was greatly inspired by her surroundings and her happiness with life. While Kathe Kollwitz created sculptures and drawings derived from her personal pain, which stemmed from a life full of loss and the affects of living in what seemed to be a continuous war. Their subjects range from vibrant flowers and landscapes of desert scenes to painful depictions of death, loss, and human suffering. In some sense, these two women are constituted at completely opposite ends of the spectrum in relation to one another- however; both women excelled in their creativity and are remembered today for their greatness, despite their differences in style and creative expression.

Georgia O’Keeffe was re-invigorated with life when she met her husband. Her happiness with life and artistic creativity is emulated in the vibrancy and beauty of her subjects. Her paintings of flowers are done on large canvases with wild brush strokes, suggesting her own wild freeness in expression. It has been said “her large canvases of lush, overpowering flowers filled the still lifes with dynamic energy and erotic tension, while her cityscapes were testaments to subtle beauty within the most industrial circumstances” (pbs.org). Although flowers have both melancholy and delightful associations, through her use of color and her reference point of the subject, O’Keeffe erases any signs of melancholic or negative moods. “For many [of her] paintings represent the beginnings of a new American art free from the irony and cynicism of the late 20^th century” (pbs.org). She instead reveals vibrancy for life within the delicacy and fragility of the flowers, giving them a boldness that could not be denied upon closer examination of the flowers individually.

Comparatively, Kathe Kollwitz’s sculpture work reveals not only her pain and depression but also political and viewpoints. She was deeply affected by the loss of her second son Peter in World War I. This loss contributed to her socialist and pacifist political views in Germany. In retrospect, Kollwitz was very depressed and burdened by the war-filled times. She was engulfed in grief and feelings of guilt for the soldiers lost, she carried a sense of responsibility for their deaths like she did for her own son’s. With the same inspiration as her drawing, “Woman With a Dead Child”, which depicts a woman coddling her dead child in mourning and grief, Kollwitz created a sculpture dedicated to her late son Peter. The sculpture was titled “The Parents”, and it depicts two parent statues in mourning in the presence of the body of their son in between. Her dedication to her son and the fallen soldiers who fought beside him and in every war since reveals her personal feelings of never being able to escape the brutal reality of war and the pain of having to exist without the ones she loved so deeply.

Both women have taken direction from life’s experiences. One led her to a great release, a freedom within herself and life. Ultimately O’Keefe’s recognition in the art world led to her becoming one of the more influential and inspiring artists of the century. The other was devastated by the tragedies of her life and times, and the pain of having to continue living when it seemed almost impossible. O’Keeffe revealed an unseen boldness in life, Kollwitz revealed realistic themes of war, poverty, the working class life and the lives of ordinary women.

Paintings Featured by Georgia O’keeffe

“Bella Donna” (year unknown), Oil Painting

“Red Poppy” ( ), Oil Painting
"Ram's Head White Hollyhock & Little Hills" -- 1935 -- Georgia O'Keeffe -- American -- Oil on canvas -- The Brooklyn Museum