Georgia O’Keeffe in Hawaii—Voyage for Pineapples and Artistic Freedom

From January 1939, Georgia O’Keeffe spent three months in Hawaii. Although it might have felt like a vacation, she was there for work. She had been commissioned by the Hawaiian Pineapple Company (later known as Dole) to create two paintings that would be published in magazines as part of an advertising campaign for the company. These paintings would be used to showcase the benefits of eating Dole pineapples.

O’Keeffe’s husband, the photographer Alfred Stieglitz, had reservations about the trip, believing that serious artists do not do commercial work.

However, Georgia O’Keeffe’s paintings have an honesty and a passion about them that supersede the restrictions and limitations of “commercial work.” She was one of the most famous artists living in America at the time of her trip, and when we look at the paintings, photographs, and sketches that she made during her stay in Hawaii, we see an artist who is free to be herself. This is what I learned about Georgia O’Keeffe from the 2018 exhibition at the New York Botanical Garden. As you can imagine, the location for this show was perfect, and its serene, quiet atmosphere helped visitors delve into O’Keeffe’s world.

The 17 paintings in the exhibition have not been “seen together in New York since their debut in 1940.” This debut took place in Stieglitz’s art gallery, the year after O’Keeffe’s return.

O’Keeffe’s sketches especially moved me. When I sketch, I often have to fight the temptation to make a work of art. In my view, this is not what a sketchbook is for, even though many sketchbooks have been exhibited in museums through the centuries, and many sketchbooks are, in fact, works of art in their own right. I believe that a sketchbook is a place to play, a place to experiment, and a place to doodle one’s thoughts. It is the equivalent of a drawing diary, meant only for the eyes of the artist who owns it. O’Keeffe drew a few lines, and she had a mountain. And the lines are completely unself-conscious.

O’Keeffe’s paintings are abstract as well as figurative, painted in the artist’s own language. When she paints a large flower that presses against the edges of the canvas, we are drawn into her world, seeing the shapes of these flowers in a new and exciting way. We are being taught to see shapes that we may never have noticed before because of their size. She forces us to look.

And unlike a Monet painting, for example, O’Keeffe’s works look exactly the same whether you’re standing two feet away or across the room. This adds to their charm, whereas with other artists, such consistency might feel boring. O’Keeffe makes us wonder how other objects really look—whether it’s an old pair of shoes, a newspaper, or a paper bag.

The two paintings that were used in the Hawaiian Pineapple Company advertising campaign shared a wall in the exhibit. One is a painting of a pineapple bud and the other a painting of a heliconia.

The paintings are so powerful that they are able to withstand the following text from the magazine advertisement:

Perhaps you have never seen a pineapple bud—and words cannot describe this glowing crater of color which on the Dole plantations grows and ripens into a luscious big pineapple… Perhaps you have never tasted Dole Pineapple Juice—and there is no other way to discover the fragrant, zestful goodness of this pure juice. Just try it for breakfast… After shopping or exercise—with the children when they come from school… Whenever you or your family crave refreshment.

Dole Pineapple Juice advertisement, 1939, Georgia O’Keeffe: Visions of Hawaii.

Any work of art that can actually be noticed and appreciated after reading this text has to be great.