Blue and Green Music, 1919/1921 by Georgia O'Keeffe

Wassily Kandinsky carefully discusses his ideas of the meaning of color in his book. O'Keeffe obviously had her own palette, and she was probably inspired by Kandinsky, to make it that, her own. Perhaps O'Keeffe tried to bring forth her own visual symphony in this image, perhaps inspired by classical music. Kandinsky views the light blue color as the equal of the sounds of a flute, dark blue means chello and an even darker blue would be an organ.

O'Keeffe's Specials ultimately led to further abstractions such as Blue and Green Music, which features a soaring yet controlled surge of colors. Critics of the time responded with comments based on Regression Theory by Freud and strong emphasis on the feminine nature of her paintings. While this partly troubled O'Keeffe, she also realized that that same feminine essence made her work unique. Unfortunately, O'Keeffe found critical opinion too invasive and after her exhibits of abstractions and the famous flower paintings, she generally produced art that would not be linked with sexuality.

You asked me about music. I like it better than anything in the world color gives me the same thrill once in a long, long time, sometimes a story or something that will call a picture to my mind will affect me like music. Do you think we can ever get much of it in Art?"