Georgia O'keeffe: « My New Yorks »

Exhibition at the Art Institute, Chicago, 2 June - 22 September 2024 ;
at the High Museum, Atlanta, 25 October 2024 - 16 February 2025.

In 1924, Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986) first moved into the Shelton Hotel in New York with her husband, the photographer and art dealer Alfred Stieglitz. The Shelton was Manhattan's first residential skyscraper, and its dizzying heights inspired the American artist to produce a powerful series of around twenty-five paintings and numerous drawings over a period of around five years. These works, which she called 'my New Yorks', consist essentially of two types of composition: sprawling observations with a bird's-eye view of the city, and humble views directed towards the newly built urban monoliths. By exploring the New York skyline, the artist was able to express the city (in his own words) "as it feels".

This exhibition catalogue redefines our understanding of this pivotal but underestimated period in Georgia O'Keeffe's career. It situates the New York paintings within the artist's body of work and analyses the ways in which these works reflect narratives of constructed environments, racialised spaces and the politics of space.