Georgia O'Keeffe

(1887 - 1986)

Mother of American Modernism, she became the first female artist to be honoured with a retrospective at New York's Museum of Modern Art. Holds the record as the most expensive female artist when her floral still life Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1 fetched $44.5 million at Sotheby's in New York in 2014.

Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, by President Ford, 1977

Awarded the National Medal of Arts, by President Reagan, 1985

Introduced into the National Women's Hall of Fame,1993.

Her will to create did not diminish with her failing eyesight. In 1997, at age ninety, she observed, “I can see what I want to paint. The thing that makes you want to create is still there.” She lived to age 98.