“I’ve been absolutely terrified every moment of my life and I’ve never let it keep me from doing a single thing that I wanted to do.”
Georgia Totto O’Keeffe, born in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin in 1887, became a well-known artist during her lifetime. The city of Sun Prairie has recognized the artist with a brown historical marker and an avenue named in her honor. In addition, there’s a sizable O’Keeffe exhibit at the Sun Prairie Historical Museum, and a blue historical sign marks where the O’Keeffe farmstead once stood.
O’Keeffe left Wisconsin at age 15 to study art. She established herself as one of the world’s greatest painters. Though she never lived in her home state again, Sun Prairie is proud to claim rights as her birthplace.
I moved to Sun Prairie in 2020 and have enjoyed discovering the ways the city remembers O’Keeffe, one of its most celebrated residents.
This brown historical marker is located next to City Hall at 300 East Main Street in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. The marker reads:
This world-renowned artist was born in the Town of Sun Prairie on November 15, 1887. She was the second of seven children born to Francis and Ida O’Keeffe. Georgia grew up on the family farm south of the city of Sun Prairie. As a child, she received art lessons and her abilities were recognized and encouraged by local teachers and family throughout her school years.
After O’Keeffe left Sun Prairie, she pursued studies at the Art Institute of Chicago (1905-1906) and at the Art Students League, New York (1907-1908). Her works include a range from American abstracts, to New York cityscapes, oversized flowers and landscape interpretation of the Southwest United States.
Georgia O’Keeffe’s work spans over sixty years. She died in Santa Fe, NM in 1986 at the age of 98.
Erected 2002
Wisconsin Historical Society
Sun Prairie Historical Library and Museum
The Sun Prairie Historical Library & Museum stands at 115 East Main Street in what was once the city’s Public Library building. Before 1924, the home of the first settler of the area and his family stood on the lot. The Charles Bird family home was donated to the city in 1922 as a memorial to this first settler and his family. Due to its condition, it was removed and replaced with the current building, Sun Prairie’s first public library.
Georgia O’Keeffe, known as “The Mother of American Modernism,” is remembered with a dedicated room in the museum.
O’Keeffe is also memorialized with an avenue in her name. This sign stands at one of the busiest intersections of the city.
An unremarkable blue and white sign marks the birthplace of Georgia O’Keeffe. It’s not obvious or easy to spot from the country road.
The large, white O’Keeffe family home was destroyed by fire in the 1970’s, but the blue sign stands in remembrance at 2405 County Hwy T, Sun Prairie.
“When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it’s your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else. Most people in the city rush around so. They have no time to look at a flower. I want them to see it whether they want to or not.”
Georgia O’Keeffe
Petunias, 1925. Oil on hardboard panel (1887-1987) de Young Museum
by Lori Lipsky