Pansy 1926

Georgia O’Keeffe made ‘Pansy’ with oil paint to make something small into something big. I love how she builds up the pigment, this smooth blackness, so it’s less about the flower itself, and more about how it feels to look at it. She’s making an abstract painting, but in the form of a flower. It’s like she’s painting the idea of a flower, not just what she sees. Check out the way she contrasts the velvety darkness of the pansy with the pale, almost ethereal blue flowers above. It’s like night and day, shadow and light. And that little burst of yellow in the center of the pansy, it's not just color, it’s a tiny sun, a concentrated point of energy. It reminds me of Arthur Dove, another painter who tried to capture the essence of things. With O'Keeffe, you get the sense that she's digging deeper, into the soul of the flower, and maybe into herself too.