Which 1919 Georgia O'Keeffe painting uses musical language in its title?

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Blue and Green Music is the 1919 Georgia O'Keeffe painting with musical language in its title.

The work uses flowing bands and areas of blue and green to suggest movement and rhythm without depicting a literal musical performance. It belongs to O'Keeffe's early abstract period, when she explored how color and line could communicate sensations independently of recognizable objects.

O'Keeffe was interested in the relationship between visual art and music, especially the possibility of creating an equivalent to musical feeling through nonrepresentational forms. This idea helped distinguish her early abstractions from straightforward landscape or still-life painting.

The title can be confused with O'Keeffe's later works that also combine color words and musical references. Blue and Green Music is specifically dated 1919 and is held by the Art Institute of Chicago. Its subject is not a musical instrument or scene; the musical reference describes the painting's expressive structure.

Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Oct. 2026

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