FEMALE SUBJECT’S ABSTRACTION LANGUAGE: MODERNIST EXPRESSION IN GEORGIA O’KEEFFE AND FAHRELNISSA ZEID
Makaleler > Tam Makale · 2026
Yazarlar: Zeynep Asya ALTUĞ
Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi, Uluslararası, 2026, cilt 28, ss 935-959
DOI: 10.16953/deusosbil.1890455
Özet
This article examines how American artist Georgia O’Keeffe and Turkish artist Fahrelnissa Zeid transform modernist abstraction into a feminine visual language shaped by personal experience, embodiment, and alternative modes of perception. Drawing on feminist critiques of the male gaze and the masculine foundations of modernism, it argues that both artists redefine abstraction beyond formalist, universal, and rational ideals. O’Keeffe develops an immanent visual language grounded in bodily perception, sensory engagement with nature, and an intimate relationship with the New Mexico Desert. Zeid, by contrast, articulates a subjective language of transcendence in which colour, emotional intensity, cultural memory, and spiritual energy converge in both large-scale non-figurative compositions and expressionist modes. Through separate analyses of selected works and a comparative reading, the article demonstrates that for both artists, abstraction functions not as an escape from lived experience but as a means of expressing the personal, intuitive, and spiritual dimensions of female subjectivity. Ultimately, O’Keeffe and Zeid challenge the patriarchal limits of modernism and expand the possibilities of abstraction in twentieth-century art.