ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation / Thesis: “LIVING ON PAPER ...

Chapter Four: O’Keeffe’s Debut at 291 and Her Watercolors
In this chapter, I continue following O’Keeffe’s career as a modernist through the
years 1916, 1917, and 1918. During these years, O’Keeffe saw a much greater variety of
modern art works than she had seen previously, being at last exposed to paintings in full
color. Color entered her own works in the medium of watercolor, particularly as she
traveled and taught in Virginia, North Carolina, and Texas. At the same time that
O’Keeffe was expanding her artistic resources, Stieglitz was holding the first exhibitions
of her modern works, first the charcoals of 1915, and then the watercolors and first oils of
1916 and 1917. Thus, O’Keeffe had to cope with the beginnings of the reception of her
art even as she moved beyond the works to which Stieglitz was reacting.
Chapter Five: O’Keeffe’s Drawings and Watercolors in Photographs and Words
The final chapter begins with O’Keeffe’s move from Texas to New York, where
she lived with Stieglitz. Here I query O’Keeffe’s change from graphic media to paint in
oils at this time. Again, as O’Keeffe was moving into new artistic territory, Stieglitz was
reacting to her existing works. In this chapter I explore how, through his photographs of
the artist, Stieglitz expressed his excitement over the immediacy of artistic touch in
O’Keeffe’s drawings and watercolors. Further, I examine the myths of origin that
Stieglitz established by continuing through the decades to share O’Keeffe’s drawings
with visitors to his later galleries while telling stories about how he discovered the artist
through these works. I see Stieglitz adopting the approach of the traditional connoisseur
to drawings, looking for deep revelations about the artist’s character and emotions, to his
approach to modern art in all media.
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