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Blue and Green Music

Abstract painting in predominant shades of blue, green, and black, featuring diagonal bands of color and undulating lines.
© The Art Institute of Chicago

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  • Abstract painting in predominant shades of blue, green, and black, featuring diagonal bands of color and undulating lines.

Date:

1919–21

Artist:

Georgia O’Keeffe (American, 1887–1986)

About this artwork

Around 1920 Georgia O’Keeffe painted a number of oils exploring, as she later recalled, “the idea that music could be translated into something for the eye.” In Blue and Green Music, O’Keeffe’s colors and forms simultaneously suggest the natural world and evoke the experience of sound. She was drawn to the theories of the Russian Expressionist painter Vasily Kandinsky, who, in his 1912 text Concerning the Spiritual in Art, argued that visual artists should emulate music in order to achieve pure expression free of literary references.

Status

On View, Gallery 271

Department

Arts of the Americas

Artist

Georgia O'Keeffe

Title

Blue and Green Music

Place

United States (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

c. 1919–1921

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

58.4 × 48.3 cm (23 × 19 in.)

Credit Line

Alfred Stieglitz Collection, gift of Georgia O'Keeffe

Reference Number

1969.835

Copyright

© The Art Institute of Chicago

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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