Georgia O'Keeffe began painting enlarged flowers in New York in 1924.
That year marked an important shift in her subject matter. Her large flower paintings presented petals and centers at a scale that made viewers examine ordinary natural forms as monumental compositions. Works from this period helped establish the imagery most commonly associated with her name.
O'Keeffe had already produced abstract charcoal drawings and paintings of New York architecture. The flower paintings therefore did not represent her first experiments with modernism; they developed from an established interest in simplified shapes, close observation, and abstraction.
The paintings are often described as symbols of sexuality, but O'Keeffe objected to critics’ attempts to impose a single interpretation on them. She said viewers should take time to look at flowers closely. Her floral subjects continued throughout her career, alongside bones, shells, buildings, and Southwestern landscapes.