Georgia O’Keeffe was part of the post World War I American Modernist Movement, which attempted to prove American exceptionalism. The movement was part of the growing emphasis on nationalism in this country. O’Keeffe was a leading female painter who was first well-known for her representational depictions of “flowers, leaves, shells, bones, and other architectural and natural subjects” but was also a huge influence upon abstraction as an American aesthetic (Lynes 1-2). O’Keefe was strongly influenced by the “curvilinear and organic vocabulary” of the Art Nouveau movement, by anti-traditional, individually expressive and sensual Japanese designs, and by photography’s use of space, perspective, and line (2-3).
abstraction White Rose (1927)
Georgia Totto O’Keeffe was born in November of 1887 to dairy farmers in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. Her parents considered art to be an important part of her education from elementary to high school. In her early life, she was tutored in art at home and by a local watercolorist. Throughout high school in Madison and then in Chatham, Virginia, her teachers encouraged her art. After high school, she studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and then became part of the Art Students League in New York, where she first met Alfred Stieglitz who later became her husband. The Art League granted her a Still-Life Scholarship in 1907 to attend the Outdoor School at Lake George, New York. She spent two years in Chicago from 1908 to 1910 as a commercial artist prior to teaching art in Virginia, Texas, and South Carolina.
Untitled-West Lawn of UVA (ca. 1912)Abstraction (1946)
O’Keeffe began dabbling in abstracts with charcoal in 1915, and her husband-to-be included these as part of a group show in New York at his famous gallery 291 in late spring and summer of 1916; he arranged the first one-artist exhibition of her work in April of 1923, simply entitled Georgia O’Keeffe. Working with abstracts made O’Keeffe part of a small, elite American group of artists, and she considered abstraction to be her primary style. However, when critics misinterpreted her work as a representation of her sexuality, she turned to “recognizable subject matter” for which she is most known(www.okeeffemuseum.org/art–exhibitions).
Banyan Tree (1934)
Flowers as the subject of her paintings became an obsession beginning in 1924 and continued for decades. O’Keeffe created paintings of all sizes, and she emphasized the center of a flower and its sexuality. The critics really had fun with this, and later O’Keeffe would boldly tell the critics, and I loosely translate, “Get your minds out of the gutter, because my mind is not in there.”
Petunia No. 2 was first exhibited in the famous “Seven Americans” show organized by Stieglitz in 1925 and was one of O’Keeffe’s first large-scale paintings. The painting illustrates her fascination with the principles of photography and her respect for mentor Arthur Wesley Dow’s focus on composition as all-important. The influence of Asian expressionism is also indicated (www. okeeffemuseum.org/art–exhibitions). O’Keeffe’s mastery of color is highlighted by the “two-dimensionality (rather than focus on perspective)” in her flower studies (Stern 3).
(1924)
In December of 2011, O’Keeffe’s Canna Red and Orange (1926)was auctioned at Christie’s for $1.43 million. It was a a very colorful 20 X 16-inch oil on canvas.
This sale was totally eclipsed by Christie’s auction in 2001 of Calla Lilies with Red Anemone (1928) for an amazing $6.17 million. In an article in 1989, art expert Nicholas Callaway wrote that some found O’Keeffe’s flowers to be “sensual” and others found them to be “chaste,” but the most amazing fact is that the paintings were done by a woman “at a time when the art world was almost exclusively male.” One fact is painfully but blissfully true: controversy brings notoriety (“Big Art” 2).
(1928)
Leaving his wife of 25 years, Stieglitz moved in with O’Keeffe in 1918 and married her in 1924. Stieglitz, a prominent photographer, began a study in portraiture of O’Keeffe which spanned nearly three decades (www.okeeffemuseum.org/art–exhibitions). During this time, Stieglitz made more than 330 photographs of O’Keeffe, including her hands, face, feet, and torso. His aim was to show her humanity–the “strengths and vulnerabilities.” She was depicted both “clothed and nude, intimate and heroic, introspective and assertive.” He “almost singlehandedly defined her public persona for generations to come.” The pictures were radical with unique angles, lighting, close-ups, colors, and abstractions; and the world perceived O’Keeffe as radical, also (Celebrating three giants 2-3).
Georgia O’Keefe-hands (1918) photo by StieglitzGeorgia O’Keefe- Hand and Wheel (1933)
O’Keeffe and Stieglitz spent the seasons in New York City and at Lake George, but she spent brief times each year working in New Mexico. In New York, she worked with oils to capture her impressions of flowers, leaves, and trees. Throughout her career, she loved depicting trees as “living and lifeless.” Her love of photography influenced her to study scale, perspective, and color. She painted buildings with “optical distortion” (www.okeeffemuseum.org/art–exhibitions).
Above The Clouds (1962)
After her husband’s death in 1946, O’Keeffe settled down in New Mexico, living at her homes in Abiquiu and Ghost Ranch and also making trips into Navajo territory. The hills, cliffs, and mountains, the cedar and cottonwood trees, the dessert bones of her collection, the very simple architecture of the homes, and the various landscapes became the subjects of her work for the next 40 years. She was also inspired by traveling the world. During this time, she continued representational and abstract works using oil paints, watercolors, pastels, and charcoal. She continued to strive to build a “body of work whose aesthetic [was] modern in its precision, clean lines and elegant simplicity” (www.okeeffemuseum.org/art–exhibitions).
A Man From The Desert (1941)Rams Head Blue Morning Glory (1938)
Without a doubt, Georgia O’Keeffe was one of the most prolific painters in history, having painted over 2,000 pieces. Hundreds of her works are exhibited in more than 100 public art galleries in Asia, Europe, and North and Central America. President Gerald Ford presented her with the Medal of Freedom Award in 1977, and President Ronald Reagan awarded her the National Medal of Arts in 1985. Even though she is shown all over the world, O’Keeffe’s passion was a personal one: “I have but one desire as a painter–that is to paint what I see, as I see it, in my own way, without regard for the desires or taste of the professional dealer or the professional collector” (www.okeeffemuseum.org/art&exhibitions).
Anything (1916)Alligator Pears (1920)
Early in 1971, Georgia O’Keeffe lost her central vision and was left to struggle with limited peripheral vision. Surprisingly, she was able to work in watercolors and charcoal without any assistance until 1978 and with graphite until 1984. From 1972, she depended upon an assistant to help her paint with oils until 1977 when she had to give it up. Juan Hamilton, a potter-sculptor, was that assistant. Juan became her traveling companion, editor, and close friend until O’Keeffe’s death in 1986 at the age of 98 years old.
3 Zinnias (1921)
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“Big art in the big apple: two major New York auction houses put classic paintings front at
center at December sales.” Antiques Roadshow Insider Jan. 2011: 4+. General OneFile. Web.
3 Dec. 2014.
“Celebrating three giants of photography.” USA Today [Magazine] Jan. 2011:50+. General OneFile.
Web. 3 Dec. 2014.
Lynes, Barbara Buhler. “Georgia O’Keeffe: abstraction.” Veranda Mar. 2010: 24+. General
OneFile. Web. 3 Dec. 2014.
Stern, Fred. “Legendary modern American artists.” World and I Nov. 2013. General OneFile.
For better or worse, Jim Lee’s art and design work in the American comic book industry is a legacy heavily felt by anyone who knows or researches the history of comic books. Making his name on Marvel Comics’ X-Men titles, Jim Lee has created and updated radical designs for characters both company owned and of his own creation! Most well known of these are his aforementioned contributions to X-Men, his own characters from his “Wildstorm” Imprint, and his recent redesign of nearly the entire DC Universe! Needless to say, this guy is no mere “pencil-pusher”, as the designs that he creates are almost as dynamic, and controversial, as his drawing ability in general. Come, let us take an X-pedition throughout the history of the comic book universe to learn of the art and design of the infamous Jim Lee.
Born in Seoul, South Korea, Jim Lee drew even at a young age. Upon moving with his family to America, his talent blossomed into an intense adoration from his peers, who believed that he would end up as a comic book artist. Growing up, he felt as if he were an outsider, being especially at odds with his “preppy” surroundings. Thus, he connected with comic book characters who were also outsiders to certain extents, namely Superman, Spider-Man, and especially the X-Men. Upon graduating high school, Jim Lee went to Princeton to become a doctor like his father. After entering an elective drawing class, however, he realized how much he adored the craft, and was now determined more than ever to make the predictions of his classmates come to pass. When he received his psychology degree, he begged his parents to give him their blessing for him to become a comic book artist, thus forgoing anymore medical education. Begrudgingly, they gave him one year to break into the industry, otherwise he would have to return to medical school. Though he had a few indie jobs, he had yet to break into the mainstream publishers. After facing rejection after rejection from sending samples to various publishers, he was urged by his friends to show his portfolio to editors in person. As fate would have it, he met up with Archie Goodwin, an editor at Marvel Comics, who helped him get his first assignments, which were on the books Alpha Flight, an X-Men spinoff starring Wolverine’s Canadian allies, and Punisher: War Journal. At the time, Lee’s artwork was inspired by the infamous Frank Miller(Batman: Year One, The Dark Knight Returns), as well as Japanese manga and Whilce Portacio, who was seemingly fated to cross paths with Lee. Soon, he was tasked as a fill-in artist on Uncanny X-Men, where he would design one of the most popular characters in X-Men comics, and in the 90s in general: Gambit.
Soon, Lee’s artwork had made him a proverbial household name with the fandom, leading Marvel to create a new X-Men book, simply titled X-Men, with he and famed X-Men writer Chris Claremont at the helm. The first issue of the adjectiveless series, published in October of 1991, is to this day the best selling single issue comic book of all time. Of all time. Part of this was the fact that the issue has a several different covers, which, when combined, created a diorama showcasing Jim Lee redesigns of the mutant superheroes.
Namely redesigned were Storm, Cyclops, Rogue, Psylocke, and Jean Grey, whose suits were actually translated over into the X-Men animated series, along with Jim Lee’s creations Gambit, and the Soviet menace Omega Red.
Now, let us begin talking about his designs and art style. For one, he had a VERY detailed art style when compared to his peers, seen in the details in Wolverine’s claws and the cybernetics in Omega Red’s head. This goes almost to the point of having overcomplicated designs; Omega Red especially is bogged down with egregious armor, namely his ginormous shoulder pads. This almost “show-offy” level of gear would continue to show up in Jim Lee’s designs until this very day. Another trope of Lee’s are his faces. Usually characters will be drawn with either a stoic, serious face, a scowling grimace, or a “dynamic” yelling face. Many of these elements are sometimes used by Lee to seeming levels of self-parody. A trope that Lee would follow in designing female characters was to usually have bare legs, in an attempt to look as sexualized as possible. These loose costumes also drew criticism, and were seen retroactively as the beginning of many “90s extreme” design tropes. Nevertheless, the fans loved his work, and the dream of comic book fame had finally come true for Lee. Soon, however, mere design and art duties for company owned characters would not be enough.
As mentioned, Gambit, Omega Red, and other characters that Jim Lee would design for Marvel would gone on to appear in the X-Men animated series, as well as video games such as Capcom’s head to head fighting game X-Men: Children of the Atom(which Lee drew the poster for).
Enticed by a group of other “hotshot” artists, including Todd McFarlane, Rob Liefeld, Jim Valentino, Marc Silvestri, Erik Larsen, and Lee’s aforementioned inspiration, Whilce Portacio, Lee decided to pursue creative freedom and full ownership of said creations when he help found a new comic book company called Image Comics. The most popular books in the initial Image lineup were the Todd McFarlane created Spawn, a series about a mercenary who returns from hell to see his wife, only to inadvertently become enthralled in an ongoing conflict between heaven and hell, and Jim Lee’s WildC.A.T.s(initially co-written by Jim Lee and his friend Brandon Choi), which featured a covert group of superheroes who waged a secret war against the invading Daemonite race. Each creator was also given their own imprint, with which another creator could not interfere. Liefeld had Extreme Studios, McFarlane had McFarlane Productions, Larsen had Highbrow Entertainment, Silvestri had Top Cow, Valentino had Shadowline, and Lee had Wildstorm Productions. Obviously still inspired by his work on X-Men, these supposedly new WildC.A.T.s heroes were quite a bit similar to some of the mutant heroes. The stoic leader of the WildC.A.T.s was the android Spartan, whose personality and blue uniform were highly reminiscent of Jim Lee’s redesign of Cyclops. Voodoo, a mulatto character from New Orleans, was essentially a black version of Jean Grey, whereas Zealot combined elements of Psylocke, Elektra, and DC’s Wonder Woman. Grifter was similar in personality to Gambit, wearing a long trench coat as well as a mask somewhat similar to the Rob Liefeld created character Deadpool. Maul was a scientist who became a gigantic green and purple monster, eerily similar to the Incredible Hulk, whereas Warblade was obviously based off of Wolverine.
Despite the derivative designs and clunky writing in the early issues, WildC.A.T.s was a big success for Lee, eventually leading to a toy deal with Playmates and a Saturday morning cartoon on CBS. Eventually, Lee would take a more hands-off approach with WildC.A.T.s, and designed new characters for other books in his “Wildstorm” line, including Stormwatch/The Authority, Deathblow, and Gen13. Similar to his work on The Punisher, the art style of Deathblow was heavily influenced by the work of Frank Miller.
As mentioned, Lee was not without his critics, nor was Image at large. Many of the books(namely Spawn) were seen as being overly violent, sexualized, and relying too much on appealing art as opposed to having good writing. WildC.A.T.s and Gen13, while tamer than Spawn, was still guilty of this, with numerous instances of Jim Lee’s sexualized female designs. In the former, there was especial emphasis on Voodoo’s breasts and attractive nature, as well as her occupation as an exotic dancer. Another element of criticism was the was the constant book delays, which even Lee was guilty of falling prey to. Despite all of the criticism, Lee’s Wildstorm books continued to have high sales, leading to a crossover of epic proportions……and failure.
Valiant, another comic book publisher that had gained notoriety in the 90s, was requested by Jim Lee to join in an intercompany crossover between Jim Lee’s Wildstorm characters, Rob Liefeld’s Extreme Studios characters, and Valiant’s own superheroes. The result was Deathmate, the peak of 90s speculator fueled comic events. Wildstorm produced one issue of the crossover, with Lee writing said issue as well as drawing the covers and inking the interiors. Deathmate was seen as an unforseen disaster by all in almost every aspect of its production, namely with it being ludicrously late in release. This caused many comic book shops to inadvertently close down, due to the massive amounts of revenue that was believed to be gained and eventually lost due to the hype behind the series.
Unfazed by the catastrophe of Deathmate, Lee continued to advance his Wildstorm imprint, adding the Homage and Cliffhanger imprints to publish creator owned work from prolific comic creators. Wildstorm also published Wetworks, the oft-delayed book from Whilce Portacio.
During this time, Marvel Comics was experiencing financial hurdles that led them to sell many of the movie licenses to their characters to various studios, many of which still own those licenses to this day. Many of their oldest characters were now their lowest selling characters, so Marvel performed a culling like no other. They would put these characters in a new universe, with a new continuity, re-imagined, redesigned, and rebooted by the industries most popular creators. Their choices were none other than their old employees, Rob Liefeld and Jim Lee. For an event called Heroes Reborn, Marvel “farmed out” these characters and titles to Extreme Studios and Wildstorm, with the former having Captain America and Avengers, and the latter having Iron Man and Fantastic Four. Lee’s design for Iron Man, the Promethium Armor, is still somewhat popular to this day, featuring trademark Lee overabundance of detail. The Fantastic Four redesigns, however, were fairly basic updates, featuring a lighter shade of blue than was usually used on the costumes of the First Family.
Despite signing on for only two books, Lee and his studio eventually had to finish all four, as Rob Liefeld had unceremoniously left his titles. Taking on numerous editorial tasks, however, had made Lee drift away from focusing on his artwork, driving him to do what his Image compatriots more than likely saw as treason or selling out. In 1998, Lee sold Wildstorm Studios to DC Comics, leaving him ready for a myriad of art assignments on major books. The first of these was Batman: Hush, a 12-issue series written by Jeph Loeb (Batman: The Long Halloween, Superman: For All Seasons). In the story, Jim Lee drew pretty much all of Batman’s infamous rogues gallery, including designing the eponymous Hush, a new villain who is revealed to be a figure from Bruce Wayne’s past.
The character’s design is simply a bandaged man draped in a long trench coat, evoking the Gambit’s and Grifter’s of Lee past. Is this symbolic of the character being part of Batman’s past, or is it simply lazy designing on Lee’s part?
After the 12 part Batman story, Lee would illustrate a 12 issue Superman story titled For Tomorrow with Brian Azzarello as the writer. This story would feature a slight design change for the character of Wonder Woman, implementing a long skirt over the character’s usual “swimsuit”.
Afterwards, Lee would team up with the washed up hack known as Frank Miller and do art duties for the inhumanly awful All-Star Batman and Robin: The Boy Wonder. The book suffered severe delays, which Lee blamed on his own artwork. Ironically, Lee’s art is usually one of the only elements of the book that is praised, with the rest of it simply being seen as evidence of Frank Miller’s self-deconstruction. Around this time, Lee also illustrated a Grant Morrison penned relaunch of WildC.A.T.s, of which only one issue came out. He also provided album artwork for Daughtry’s 2009 album, Leave This Town.
In 2010, Jim Lee became Co-Publisher of DC Comics, giving him much more creative freedom in the projects that he took on. This culminated in a controversial redesign of Wonder Woman, which was a heavy departure from both the character’s classic look and the previous Jim Lee redesign. This redesign, and the storyline that went with it, were both heavily criticized. Many felt that the jacket and darker colors were indicative of Jim Lee’s “90s” design thought process, as well as being too pedestrian for a Greek Mythology based superheroine with power rivaling even Superman!
The poor reception of the Wonder Woman redesign was not the only rain on Lee’s parade that year. DC also announced that year that they would be ending the Wildstorm Publications books. The following year, however, turned out to be a busy for DC, Jim Lee especially. In September 2001, DC launched The New 52, which relaunched all of their books to #1, as well as resetting a majority of the character continuity. Many of the main characters in the DC Universe, namely the Justice League characters, were all redesigned by Lee to varying degrees; character such as Green Lantern, Aquaman, and Batman looked relatively the same, whereas Superman and Wonder Woman were radically updated.
The initial Lee redesign of Superman was rejected in favor of an armored suit, but was later used as a costume for the “Earth 2” Superman of an alternate universe. A common criticism of this new design is the large amount of visible lines, as well as the redundancy of Superman wearing armor.
As before, the initial Wonder Woman redesign of New 52 wore pants, similar to the previous Jim Lee redesign. Cliff Chiang and Lee’s former co-worker Brian Azzarello, the artist and writer of Wonder Woman, later convinced DC Editorial to go back to the classic swimsuit look. Though initial reception to the redesigns were mixed at best, fans eventually began to warm up to them. Lee was also the artist for Geoff John’s New 52 Justice League title.
Also that year, in support of DC’s We Can Be Heroes campaign( a charity to stop hunger in the Horn of Africa), Lee designed a Batman and Superman themed version of the Kia Optima.
In 2013, for the DC fighting video game Injustice: Gods Among Us, Lee created a new design for the Mortal Kombat character Scorpion. With Mortal Kombat being a symbol of 90s excess and style over substance, it seemingly fit considering Lee’s old stomping grounds.
The year of this writing is 2013. 75 years ago, superhero comic books all began with the introduction of one character: Superman. The exact anniversary month is June(which was the release month of the original Action Comics #1), which turned out to be a big month for Superman. Not only was a new Batman/Superman comic released, but there was also the release of Superman: Unchained, a new comic book from famed Batman writer Scott Snyder and drawn by Jim Lee. Two days later, Man of Steel, the Superman movie franchise reboot from Zack Snyder was released. Lee had always loved Superman, now being considered a definite artist for the character, so taking part in the 75th birthday celebration was a dream come true.
To say that Jim Lee is an influential part of the American comic book industry is like saying that Steven Spielberg is an influential filmmaker. His artwork, for better or worse, has inspired a generation of artists, both professional and amateur. Though he has his more critiqued elements, no one can argue the dynamism of his work, nor the influence he has had on how many characters are drawn. Many of his characters have gone on to be part of several mass media endeavors, and that would not have been possible without the talent of Jim Lee. Though some may call him 90s, no one can argue that his talent is still timeless. Now, if you excuse me, I’m going to go read the WildC.A.T.s/Spawn crossover and watch scene from the X-Men cartoon with Gambit in them. Thank you, based God.
