Abstraction and eroticism – two misunderstandings: Georgia O’Keeffe

The Fondation Beyeler is presenting a giant of modern American painting in a comprehensive retrospective.

Georgia O’Keeffe, “Oriental Poppies”, 1927, oil on canvas, 76.7 × 102.1 cm.

Georgia O’Keeffe Museum / © Pro Liturgy

In the beginning was this vision. Or was it an image from the memory of a dream? In any case, a soft cloud is floating on the sheet of paper. If you take a closer look, you can see that it comes from a small luminous point. “Train at night in the desert” is the name of the watercolor. A lonely train makes its way through the darkness. The white steam escapes from the locomotive’s chimney and spreads out in the pictorial space of a black sky. Or more precisely: Only this expanding movement creates the space in which a point follows a line.