Curriculum Materials: Art in America
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Image 18 Georgia O'Keeffe Questions: |
City Night
In City Night, O'Keeffe reduces three skyscrapers to simple GEOMETRIC forms devoid of windows. Viewed from below, the frontmost buildings are dark streamlined silhouettes against the velvety deep blue sky. Soft but precise gray lines with white highlights break up their dark surfaces and emphatically stress their imposing height. A bright white spot at the bottom of the left building may be a reflection of the moon or the light of a street lamp. A white building between the dark ones gives greater depth to the night scene and emphasizes the white highlights to unify the COMPOSITION. Beyond all the buildings, a soft halo of light encircles the moon. Serenity permeates the silent city night.
City Night represents O'Keeffe's
impressions of the city more than its exact appearance.
O'Keeffe considered her images,
whether flowers, barns, or skyscrapers, to be realistic
representations of the abstract aspects of her subjects. In
City Night, for example, she exaggerated and simplified the
most essential abstract elements, the straight lines and
broad flat surfaces of the buildings. By eliminating details
such as the windows, she heightened the visual contrast
between the stark white building and the dark buildings. For
O'Keeffe, even the space filled by
the night sky becomes an
ORGANIC abstract
shape-an integral part of her composition.
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