Georgia O’Keeffe’s early nonrepresentational paintings are most closely associated with American modernism.
O’Keeffe became a major figure in American modernism through works that simplified forms, emphasized design, and sometimes abandoned recognizable subject matter altogether. Her 1915 charcoal drawings are especially important examples of her early move toward abstraction.
American modernism was not one single style. It included artists who responded to European avant-garde ideas while developing approaches rooted in American experience. O’Keeffe’s work combined abstraction with recurring subjects such as flowers, buildings, bones, and landscapes.
Regionalism, Pop art, and Precisionism are also important labels in American art history, but none is the broad movement most commonly used to place O’Keeffe’s career. Her paintings are sometimes discussed alongside Precisionism, yet modernism is the more inclusive classification.