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Embodiment of the American Dream and of a radically modern femininity, the painter Georgia O’Keeffe has carved out a special place for herself in 20th century art.

A child of Wisconsin, where her Hungarian and Irish grandparents settled, Georgia O’Keeffe grew up on the family ranch, pushed towards independence by a proud and powerful mother. She knew what she wanted to do very early on; she studied art in New York before finding her own creative path (“filling space in a beautiful way”) through the teachings of Arthur Wesley Dow. She taught art in Texas and returned to the Big Apple in 1918, where the eminent gallery owner and photographer Alfred Stieglitz exhibited her work. From Shelton Hotel to the shores of Lake George, she painted skyscrapers and close-ups of sensuous flowers while he immortalized her tirelessly.
 
He gathered her portraits and nudes, captured in front of her canvases, in 1921 in a scandalous exhibition, which put Georgia O’Keeffe on the map. Six years later, the arrival of Dorothy Norman, a budding photographer, in Alfred Stieglitz’s gallery cast a shadow over their marriage. The artist fled to New Mexico, now sharing her time between East and West, between her wounded love and a consoling nature. After losing an important project and being hospitalized for a nervous breakdown, it was in these desert regions that she rediscovered her taste for painting.

Official Full Length Selection at the 40th edition of the International Art Film Festival (FIFA)