Art of Advent Day 16

By Sadie McGraw

Georgia O'Keeffe, Winter Road I, 1963, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

Image courtesy of the National Gallery of Art.

Though most renowned for her large-scale and magnified depictions of Naturalia, Georgia O’Keefe’s Winter Road I is a powerfully simple and quietly evocative as a clean stroke of dark brown cuts through a cream white expanse.  The work was inspired by her view of Highway 84 and the winding mesa out of her bedroom window in Abiquiu, New Mexico.  O’Keeffe depicted this mountain several times throughout her oeuvre, with this piece being the most abstract of the depictions. Though New Mexico is famously snowless, O’Keeffe’s use of space and the contrast between the cream white and rich brown creates a sense of nostalgic longing often associated with winter.   

Winter Road I is almost cyclic: the line expands only to recede into the foreground, adding to the rawness of the work’s simplicity. Like her other landscapes, this piece is incredibly natural, not in the realism in the depiction of the road, but the depth of connection the viewer can make with it. There’s a certain familiarity that comes with the cyclic aspect of the piece. There is comfort in knowing the line will undulate, past what O’Keeffe depicts, solace in the endless winter white.

One of O’Keeffe’s longtime career goals is to evoke a sense of the unknown or the faraway, as she writes, “I had an idea today. When we draw. . . we try to have rhythms running over the surface. [Why] don’t we try to make them feel as if they were coming and going to and from you—through the thickness of the paper?”Winter Road I evokes the faraway incredibly effectively, giving the viewer an excellent piece to contemplate this holiday season. 

Bibliography

National Gallery of Art. “Looking Mindfully at Georgia O’Keeffe’s ‘Winter Road I’” Febuary 22, 2024, https://www.nga.gov/stories/articles/looking-mindfully-georgia-okeeffes-winter-road-i.