Georgia O'Keeffe began painting her famous flower close-ups in 1924.
Her enlarged flower paintings transformed small natural subjects into monumental compositions. By filling the canvas with petals and tightly cropped forms, she encouraged viewers to look closely at shapes, color transitions, and the structure of the flower itself.
The flower paintings became some of her best-known works, although they were only one part of her career. O'Keeffe also painted New York skyscrapers, desert landscapes, animal bones, shells, and abstract forms.
Some viewers interpreted the flowers as symbols of female sexuality, an interpretation often linked to psychoanalytic readings of modern art. O'Keeffe rejected that imposed meaning and said she wanted people to see the flower rather than overlook it because it was small.