Bella Donna 1939

Georgia O'Keeffe made Bella Donna with oil paint, blowing up the scale of a flower until it's practically abstract. It feels like a painting about painting, where the subject is just an excuse to explore colour and form. I love how the edges of the petals curve and fold, rendered with such delicate gradients of pink and white. You can almost feel the velvety texture. O'Keeffe's paint application is so smooth it’s as though the colours blend seamlessly on the canvas, like she's dissolving the boundaries between the flower and the air around it. The subtle shifts in tone are really striking, building a monumental but ephemeral image, a bit like a very large, very sensual watercolour. Looking at this, I'm reminded of other artists like Agnes Martin, who use delicate color and repetition to create almost meditative spaces. Like Agnes Martin, O'Keefe doesn't give you all the answers, but invites you to come closer, to get lost in the details, and to find your own meaning.