Abstraction Blue

1927

Retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum

The Brooklyn Museum held a retrospective of her work.

1928

Stieglitz begins an affair with Dorothy Norman

O’Keeffe and Stieglitz had an open relationship, and his affairs could be painful for her. In 1928 he began a long-term affair with Dorothy Norman, who was also married.

1928

Stir over the sale of six calla lily paintings for $25,000

Stieglitz announced that six of her calla lily paintings had been sold to an anonymous buyer in France for $25,000; there is no evidence the transaction went as he reported. The publicity worked: from then on her paintings sold for higher prices, and within a decade of her move to New York she was the highest-paid American woman artist.

1929

First journey to New Mexico

At the suggestion of Maria Chabot and Mabel Dodge Luhan she travelled by train with her friend, the painter Rebecca (Beck) Strand, wife of Paul Strand: in Taos Luhan took them in and gave them studios. From then on O’Keeffe visited New Mexico almost every year, often for months, returning each winter to New York to exhibit at Stieglitz’s gallery.

1929

Mountain and desert treks; “The Lawrence Tree”

In the summer of 1929 she went on pack trips through the rugged mountains and deserts of the region; the same year she bought a Ford Model A, learned to drive and explored the land she loved in it. Later she visited the nearby D. H. Lawrence Ranch, where she completed her famous oil painting “The Lawrence Tree”.

1929–1983 · Workplace

New Mexico