CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 9/14/2021

Dual nature, harmonized shape and color in superb new book on 'Georgia O’Keeffe'

"Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1" (1932) is reproduced from the superb new 316-page catalog to the international traveling exhibition currently on view at the Centre Pompidou. "The Jimson Weed was one of O’Keeffe’s favorite flowers,” the editors write. “She grew the night blooming flower at her home in Abiquiú, allowing the blossoms to spread before realizing they were poisonous. The plant’s dual nature, its importance to the Indians, drew O’Keeffe to the flower which she transformed into a powerful statement of harmonized shape and color: ‘The Jimson weed blooms in the cool of the evening – […] Don Juan speaks of uses the Yaqui Indians make of the Jimson weed that almost make one afraid. When I found that they are poisonous, I dug them up but in Abiquiú, a few keep on growing persistently. Now when I think of the delicate fragrance of the flowers, I almost feel the coolness and sweetness of the evening.'"⁠⁠