Coxcomb 1931

Georgia O’Keeffe painted ‘Coxcomb’ with oil on canvas. Look at the petals on this flower, how they seem to both emerge from and dissolve into the white background. It's all about process. There is a sort of push-pull between the organic forms and the materials. Notice the way the paint is applied, not thick and gloopy, but soft and blended, creating a hazy effect. There's a gentleness, a subtlety in the gradations of colour. The stem is a kind of muddy olive, rough and visible, in comparison to the soft violet tones, which are so close in value that they almost disappear. Look at where the stem meets the petals and how those colours bleed into each other. It reminds me a bit of the way that Cy Twombly worked, this idea that art is an ongoing conversation across time. It’s all there, ripe with ambiguity and multiple interpretations.