Black White and Blue

1928

Stir over the sale of six calla lily paintings for $25,000

Stieglitz announced that six of her calla lily paintings had been sold to an anonymous buyer in France for $25,000; there is no evidence the transaction went as he reported. The publicity worked: from then on her paintings sold for higher prices, and within a decade of her move to New York she was the highest-paid American woman artist.

1928

Stieglitz begins an affair with Dorothy Norman

O’Keeffe and Stieglitz had an open relationship, and his affairs could be painful for her. In 1928 he began a long-term affair with Dorothy Norman, who was also married.

1929

First journey to New Mexico

At the suggestion of Maria Chabot and Mabel Dodge Luhan she travelled by train with her friend, the painter Rebecca (Beck) Strand, wife of Paul Strand: in Taos Luhan took them in and gave them studios. From then on O’Keeffe visited New Mexico almost every year, often for months, returning each winter to New York to exhibit at Stieglitz’s gallery.

1929–1983 · Virkested

New Mexico

December 1931

Meets Frida Kahlo

At the opening of Diego Rivera’s solo exhibition at MoMA, Frida Kahlo met O’Keeffe and a friendship developed. They stayed in touch while O’Keeffe recovered from a nervous breakdown in hospital and then in Bermuda, and in the 1950s they visited each other’s homes on a couple of occasions.

1932–1934

Nervous breakdown and two months in hospital

A nervous breakdown, largely brought on by Stieglitz’s affair with Dorothy Norman, kept O’Keeffe from working from late 1932, and in 1933 she spent two months in hospital; in 1933 and 1934 she recuperated in Bermuda. She began painting again in January 1934.