Using nature as her inspiration, GeorgiaO'Keeffe developed a highly visible, per-sonal, and monumental style withoutparallel in American painting. Perhapsmore symbolic than abstract, O'Keeffe'spaintings of simplified, enlarged and iso-lated natural forms expressed the spiritu-ality of nature, and of the artist herselfRecognized as one of the greatest artistsof the twentieth century, GeorgiaO'Keeffe created paintings that had apowerful effect on other artists and onthe public. Yet the more the public cameto love her work, the more controversialO'Keeffe became. Ironically, the popu-larity of her works and her own personalimage as an eccentric have sometimesworked to blur her importance as an ar-tistic innovator.