Publisher's Weekly Review
Flower paintings comprise more than one-fourth of O'Keeffe's total output. Callaway spent years tracking down these huge, colorful pictures, many of them in private collections; over half of the 100 oils, watercolors, pastel and charcoal sketches reproduced here have never before been published. O'Keeffe's best flower pictures are masterpieces of organic form, metaphors of the unfolding of the inner self. Some of the paintings are brash in their erotic associations, outrageous color contrasts and overblown size; a few even suggest Pop Art. Other pictures employ garish color combinations, still others look clumsy, or static and unrealized. But on the whole, this volume is a glorious discovery. Its publication marks the centennial of O'Keeffe's birth and ties in with a retrospective exhibition that tours nationally. (October 29) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
The title is absolutely accurate. This gargantuan-13 5/8-by-16-inch-album consists of extraordinarily fine color reproductions of 100 of O'Keeffe's monumental paintings of flowers. In the decade, 1920-30, when most of them were made, they established her reputation and evinced a sort of collective gasp from critics and public alike. They retain the power to do that, especially when represented this gorgeously and at this scale. Of course, seeing them in their generally still much larger original states is preferable, but more than half of the works appearing here are in private collections and the other 40 are scattered in far-flung museums. This publication commemorates the O'Keeffe centenary a mere two years since her death. Patently a luxury, it showcases an artist so popular these days that Knopf ordered a 35,000-copy first printing. It is so dumbfoundingly lovely that it may well see a second printing soon. List of plates. RO. 759.15 O'Keeffe, Georgia / Flowers in art / Painting, American / Painting, Modern-20th century-U.S. [CIP] 87-2842
