Apple Family II 1920

Georgia O'Keeffe’s ‘Apple Family II’ is a gathering of fruit, painted with oils, that feels both familiar and strange. Her mark-making is smooth, using soft forms and an eye-popping color palette, she’s clearly thinking about the process of seeing and feeling. The painting really pulls you in with its textures and hues. The apples aren’t just red or yellow; they’re a mix of shades, with light bouncing off their skins. There is a sense of volume and shape to the fruits that feels so bodily and evocative. Look at the fruit in the centre with the section taken out of it, how O'Keeffe renders that curve, that indentation in the form, that really grabs your attention. O'Keeffe’s work always makes me think about Marsden Hartley, another artist who wasn’t afraid to look closely and find the abstract within the everyday. In the end, it’s all about how art helps us see the world a little differently.