Green, Yellow and Orange

1960

Serpentine curves inspired by natural forms were a mainstay of O’Keeffe’s art from the earliest years of her career. Later on, she found new pictorial opportunities in the aerial view, which she discovered when she flew across the country and around the world in the lower-altitude propeller planes of the 1950s and 1960s. In this work, which suggests the ribbon-like meander of a Western river through arid terrain, her reference to place is almost entirely subsumed by the force of the calligraphic, abstract design.