How did Georgia O’Keeffe respond to claims that her flower paintings had sexual symbolism?

Georgia O’Keeffe consistently rejected the Freudian interpretations that characterized her large-scale flower paintings as sexual symbolism.12

Critics in the 1920s frequently applied gendered, essentialist readings to her work, a trend O’Keeffe strongly objected to because it downplayed the broader significance of her artistic achievements. She maintained that these interpretations were projections by others, rather than reflections of her intent.1

Instead, O’Keeffe explained that her focus was on the formal qualities of the flowers and the act of seeing. She famously stated, "I’ll paint what I see—what the flower is to me but I’ll paint it big and they will be surprised into taking time to look at it—I will make even busy New-Yorkers take time to see what I see of flowers". By magnifying these natural forms, she aimed to force viewers to pause and appreciate the beauty and importance of the natural world, rather than reducing her work to narrow, gendered symbolism.21