Green, Yellow and Orange 1960

Curator: Standing before us is Georgia O'Keeffe's "Green, Yellow and Orange" from 1960. The radiant landscape is crafted using acrylic paint, a medium allowing for vibrant fields of color. Editor: The painting gives me a sudden burst of sun. The interplay between those meandering green lines and the pools of yellow is surprisingly sensual. Curator: Interesting. Considering her long fascination with the New Mexico landscape, especially its contours, can you envision a river snaking through sun-drenched mesas? Editor: Definitely, though that begs the question: is it a "river" that carries not water but… energy? It’s almost psychedelic, like a close-up of a pulsating, glowing organism. What drew O’Keeffe to acrylics, and this palette? Curator: In her later years, O'Keeffe began experimenting with this then-new synthetic medium. Acrylics would dry quickly, which made sense given her ambition to achieve precise lines. Regarding her use of color, I'm reminded of the organic farming practices she would come to value and utilize at Ghost Ranch: each shade perhaps symbolic of growth and change. Editor: Yes, and what about its accessibility? While many have centered her inspiration within Southwestern nature and transcendental realms, she seemed to embrace mass-produced goods for her ranch later in life. Considering O'Keefe adopted acrylic at a time when synthetic alternatives made waves, perhaps "Green, Yellow and Orange" gestures at modernity and new labor strategies, from canvas production to brush-stroke techniques? Curator: That's definitely a compelling viewpoint—viewing this abstraction through the lens of industry and labor! I've always felt O’Keeffe imbued her works with an inherent feeling; that despite the shifting context surrounding them, these artistic testaments to the natural world transcend rigid interpretation. Editor: And in some ways, that’s exactly what intrigues me—it seems the work lives beyond the landscape, almost as its own thing in the world.