About the Exhibition
Georgia O'Keeffe: Architecture is a groundbreaking exhibition that showcases approximately 35 architectural paintings created from the 1920s –1960s. O'Keeffe, a pioneer of modern art, celebrated the beauty and complexity of the built environments she inhabited through these remarkable works. Throughout her long career, the artist found inspiration through close observations of her surroundings, both natural and manmade. She returned many times to architectural subjects with the same powerful, abstract style used for her well-known depictions of flowers and desert landscapes.
O’Keeffe experimented with line, geometry, and color to develop her distinctive style. She painted the gleaming towers of new Manhattan skyscrapers, the broad sides of rural barns, and striking adobe homes of New Mexico. The buildings in the artist’s work, rich with personal meaning, encourage us to view our architectural surroundings with new eyes.
Questions about attending the exhibition or buying tickets? Visit DIA’s Visitor Information page to learn more.
About the Talk
Throughout her career, Georgia O'Keeffe maintained relationships with architects practicing in a variety of styles and modalities. Her interactions with architects not only informed the design of her homes and interiors, but the way that O'Keeffe conceived of her paintings in relation to architectural space. In addition to her well-known friendships with Frank Lloyd Wright and Alexander Girard, this talk will also address some of the painter's other architect acquaintances, including Philip Johnson, Mies van der Rohe, and Nathaniel Owings.
About the Catalog
I also have a new essay on O’Keeffe’s relationship with her home at Abiquiu out in the beautiful exhibition catalog for this show. You can buy it here.
Image above is a mash up of Georgia O’Keeffe (American, 1887–1986). Pelvis IV, 1944. Oil on Masonite, 361/16 x 403/8 inches. Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe. Gift of the Burnett Foundation. © Private Collection. [1997.6.1] Photo: Tim Nighswander/IMAGING4ART and Frank Lloyd Wright (American, 1867–1959). Interior, general view toward ramp, V. C. Morris Gift Shop, San Francisco, 1948. Photographed 1981. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.