Georgia O'Keefe and the Calla Lily in American Art, 1860-1940 Hardcover – October 1, 2002

The Calla Lilly is one of my favorite flowers and so I was particularly excited when I first saw O'Keefe's rendering of this elegant, voluptuous bloom in all its glory. Even better was the feeling when I stumbled on to this book which is devoted entirely to her art collection of Calla Lilies. So delicate, and yet so strong. O'Keefe is always a fabulous character to read about anyways.

Georgia O'Keeffe is famous for her sensual flower paintings. Her reputation is based on the graphic depiction of genitalia among the details and silhouettes of her flowers. Although she declined to acknowledge in public that this is what she was doing, it's unmistakable. In this volume, for example, see plates 33 and 38 for the most unambiguous examples involving calla lilies.The calla lily presents a unique opportunity to display this aspect of her work since the flower visually exhibits some characteristics similar to both male and female sex organs.The essays in the book describe how calla lilies came to leave South Africa to make their way to North America and Europe, and how people there responded to the calla lily. The flower was seen as a symbol of women and men, love, purity, and death. A number of painters and photographers chose to work with calla lilies, and 54 of their paintings, drawings and photographs are reproduced in the book. Nine include some of Ms. O'Keeffe's most famous works. Before her startling innovations with calla lilies, the flowers were best known for the treatments that Marsden Hartley did with them, many of which are reproduced in the book.The essays are primarily of interest for the story behind the famous "sale" of calla lily paintings for $25,000 during the Depression that helped establish Ms. O'Keeffe as a prominent artist in collector circles. It turns out that it was almost a loan, on approval, rather than a sale.The essays refuse to address the sexuality issue for the works except to note that those who read Freud might see sexual symbolism in the flowers, and that Ms. O'Keeffe claimed no such intent. Balderdash! I graded the book down one star for such intellectual pussyfooting.I did enjoy the book, though, because although I was familiar with her calla lily paintings, I failed to appreciate how spectacular these paintings were as innovations until I compared them to the treatments by other artists who simply saw calla lilies primarily as a background symbol, as part of a still life, or as an elegant source of soaring curves evoking a spiritual sense.