Georgia O'Keeffe
Georgia
O'Keeffe's Lifetime Awards
Most artists are recognized solely for their artistic work. Georgia O'Keeffe was not only recognized for her art but she also received a number of awards during her lifetime, two of which came from Presidents. And you will also find some interesting facts about the artist on this page.
- She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
- She had the distinction of being the first woman to have a retrospective show at the Museum of Modern Art
- She was awarded the Gold Medal of Painting by the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1970.
- In 1977, President Gerald Ford awarded her the Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest honor for a civilian given by the government.
- In 1985, just one year before her death, she received the National Medal of Arts from President Ronald Reagan.
Did You Know…
...she didn't like it when people called her a "woman artist"? She didn't think that being a woman should matter to her art. She wanted to be thought of only as "an artist."
...she drew cartoons of her teachers for her high school yearbook? She was the art editor, and her classmates put this rhyme under her picture:
O is for O'Keeffe;
an artist divine
Her paintings are perfect
and her drawings are fine.
...she didn't sign her paintings? She didn't think she had to—she thought people would be able to tell they were hers because of what she painted and how she painted it.
...she did however, mark some of her paintings? If she was pleased with a painting, she would draw a star with “OK” on the back of the canvas.
...she posed nude during her time at the Art Student League? She posed for her classmate Eugene Speicher. He told her that she might as well pose since she would never amount to anything more than teaching art at a girls school.
...one of her paintings sold for $1 million? A short time before her death, one of her paintings sold for more than $1 million at a New York auction. The painting was White Rose, New Mexico painted in 1930.