The first comprehensive survey of Georgia O’Keeffe’s New York paintings is now on display at the Art Institute of Chicago through September 22, 2024. Created in a male-dominated art world that advised against her dark and angular approach, these paintings, drawings, and pastels of urban landscapes often remain overshadowed by her more well-known Southwestern scenes. The works of My New Yorks paved the path for O’Keeffe to become one of the most influential figures in modernist art.
Before New Mexico, O’Keeffe made a home in Manhattan. The artist married photographer Alfred Stieglitz in 1924, and the two moved into an apartment on the 30th floor of Midtown’s Shelton Hotel. Life in the then tallest residential building in the world gave her wings for magnificent perspective.
My New Yorks envisions the city through O’Keeffe’s eyes through experiments of abstraction and scale. Craning her neck to capture monumental skyscrapers and looking down from her high-rise apartment, the artist takes the viewer to new heights. The formal strategy in pieces like “Manhattan” gives rise to her later works. In a dizzying mosaic of pinks and blues, O’Keeffe employs jagged lines with tender flowers to find life in stillness.
The title bears its name after a quote where she states, “My New Yorks would turn the world over.” Bounded by canyons of steel and concrete, the artist captures where bright lights shine through. According to O’Keeffe, “One can’t paint New York as it is, but rather as it is felt.”
The exhibition is on view at the Art Institute of Chicago until September 22, 2024.
The Art Institute of Chicago
111 South Michigan Ave,
Chicago, IL 60603
