O'Keeffe was interested in European-based modern art, but she felt she could only go so far painting like her teachers and other artists. Around 1915, she read an important book by the Russian modern painter Wassily Kandinsky, titled Concerning the Spiritual in Art, which strengthened her desire to make something that was profoundly personal. O'Keeffe's style of painting was first and foremost her own personal vision.

Vocabulary Terms

abstract--Art that looks as if it contains little or no recognizable or realistic forms from the physical world. Focus on formal elements such as colors, lines, or shapes. Artists often "abstract" objects by changing, simplifying, or exaggerating what they see.

cropping--In photography, cropping refers to the practice of establishing the edge of an image. Often a close cropped photograph cuts parts of the central image off for expressive or compositional purposes.

modern, modernism--In art history, this term refers to the philosophies of art made in Europe and the United States during a period roughly from the 1860s through the 1970s when certain artists began to take radical steps away from traditional art in order to be deliberately different, critical, and often dissenting from the dominant official taste. Modern art or modernism is characterized by changing attitudes about art, an interest in contemporary events as subjects, personal artistic expression, and freedom from realism. Modernism can be seen as artists' attempts to come to terms with urban, industrial, and secular society that emerged during the 19th century in Western society.

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