Oriental Poppies

For other uses, see Oriental poppies.

Oriental Poppies, also called Red Poppies, is a 1927 oil-on-canvas painting by Georgia O'Keeffe.^[1][2][3][a] It is a close-up of two Papaver orientale flowers that fill the entire canvas.^[1]

Oriental Poppies
Artist	Georgia O'Keeffe
Year	1927
Medium	Oil on canvas
Dimensions	101.6 cm × 76.2 cm (40.0 in × 30.0 in)
Location	Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis

Description

The Arts Desk describes it as more subtle but equally powerful as Calla Lilies on Red, "Peering into the bright-orange petals, O’Keeffe reveals the velvety dark interior. The drama of this provocative image stems from the juxtaposition of vivid color and intrusive close-up."^[4] Of the large close-up, O'Keeffe said that she decided that she would paint flowers "big and they will be surprised into taking time to look at it - I will make even busy New Yorkers take time to see what I see of flowers."^[3] Making close-ups of flowers is said to have been influenced by her husband Alfred Stieglitz, a photographer, after they began a more sexual relationship.^[7]

Along with Black Iris, Liese Spencer of The Guardian calls it one of "her lush, sensual paintings of flowers."^[8] It fills the nearly four foot wide canvas, without a background, so that the flowers "explode" on the canvas, and direct the eye to the center of the flowers. It is among her most famous works of art.^[6]

Collection

The painting is owned by the Weisman Art Museum of the University of Minnesota,^[1] where as of July 2016^[update] it was the most valuable painting in their collection.^[9] Prior to its acquisition in 1937, it was exhibited by Stieglitz at his gallery, An American Place, in New York City.^[1][10]

Exhibitions

In 2016, Tate Modern in London exhibited Oriental Poppies along with more than 100 of O'Keeffe's major works of art, made over six decades.^[7] The exhibition was also held at the Bank Austria Kunstforum in Vienna that year.^[11]

Notes

1. The Arts Desk states that the painting was made in 1927,^[4] as does The Guardian,^[5] who also states in another article that it was made in 1928.^[6]