Georgia O'Keeffe

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)