Since 1903, members of Arts and Letters have delivered commemorative tributes to fellow members who have passed away. These remarks celebrate and reflect on the lives and work of the members being honored and acknowledge their contribution to the arts. A selection of tributes is now available in the digital archive below. As we prepared this archive, we were reminded that these tributes reflect their times, and, in some instances, include terminology and social and moral judgments we do not endorse.
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This Earth at any given time is populated by millions of people. There comes along one human being that is totally equipped to fulfill life—that was Georgia O'Keeffe.
Movements come and movements go, but Georgia O'Keeffe made her vision her own. She had a long life as we humans understand it and she fulfilled it in a magnificent way.
She lived on earth in an area that she made her own… and therefore her work transcends time and space. And we salute her because she shows the way that one person can change our seeing. She was a symbol of her appearance. She and the work were one. What she wore and how she combed her hair, everything about her was at one with the work she did.
The subject matter was always simple, always close to her. What makes O'Keeffe's work unique is that she always truthfully painted and projected things that she was really made of.
Her work was consistent and unique because she never went away from the way she was projecting herself into her work. She never moved away from her center.
She had a special touch and a transparency in her work.
Read by Robert Motherwell.