Cow's Skull with Calico Roses (1931) by Georgia O’Keeffe (American, 1887-1986)The Art Institute of Chicago
Georgia O'Keeffe has been described as the 'mother' of modern art in America. Born in 1887 and living until 1986, her painting pioneered new techniques and styles. Her subjects ranged from the skyscrapers of New York to bleached skeletons of the deserts of New Mexico.
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The Art Institute of Chicago
Start your journey where her's began, at The Art Institute of Chicago. In 1905, O'Keeffe was a student here, where she studied with John Vanderpoel and ranked at the top of her class. The Institute now holds a number of her greatest pieces, such as Cow's Skull with Calico Roses.
Brooklyn Bridge by Georgia O'KeeffeBrooklyn Museum
After some years of illness and financial hardship, O'Keeffe moved to New York, then the centre of the US art world. It was during this time that O'Keeffe developed her flower paintings and city skylines, and when her relationship with Alfred Stieglitz blossomed.
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The Brooklyn Museum
The Brooklyn Museum was the location of O'Keeffe's first-ever museum exhibition - a retrospective held in 1927, when O'Keeffe was just 40 years old. Today, the museum is the owner of a number of her early works.
Mountain at Bear Lake - Taos (1930) by Georgia O'KeeffeThe White House
O’Keeffe was 41 when she visited Taos, New Mexico, for the first time in the summer of 1929. She revisited New Mexico in 1930 and every year until 1949, when she settled there. Mountain at Bear Lake - Taos was painted at the beginning of that defining shift.
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The White House
Mountain at Bear Lake - Taos was displayed in the Green Room at the White House from 1997-2004, when it was moved to its current location in the Library. In the home of the President, it represents the continuing connection of the American people and of nature.
Ranchos Church, New Mexico (1930-1931) by Georgia O'KeeffeAmon Carter Museum of American Art
Ranchos Church, New Mexico is another early desert work. It's easy to see something of O'Keeffe's cityscapes emerging in her choice of subject; the 18th-century adobe-walled church of St. Francis of Assisi in Taos. But she makes the building appear as a natural rocky outcrop.
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Amon Carter Museum of American Art
The Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth Texas, holds a huge collection of works associated with the Old West. Most of the works in the collection fall between 1840 and 1940, and tell a varied story of the history of the western states.
The Cliff Chimneys (1938) by Georgia O'KeeffeMilwaukee Art Museum
O'Keeffe was captivated by the landscape of the southwest. She saw colours where people saw dirt, and form where people saw wilderness. Her paintings, such as The Cliff Chimneys, don't necessarily record the reality of the landscape, but the mood it evoked within her.
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Milwaukee Art Museum
The modernist structure of the Milwaukee Art Museum is the perfect location for O'Keeffe's works. The museum holds a range of paintings, from early works of the 1910s to those of the late 1950s.
Black Door with Red (1954/1954) by Georgia O'KeeffeChrysler Museum of Art
Nature, pattern, abstraction, and imagination meet in Georgia O’Keeffe’s Black Door with Red. Between 1946 and 1960 she painted more than 20 images of this patio wall at her adobe house in Abiquiu, New Mexico. In this version, the door and paving is reduced to simple squares.
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The Chrysler Museum of Art
Norfolk, Virginia is home to the Chrysler Museum of Art. This museum was founded by the heir to the automotive fortune, and is one of the largest, most comprehensive museums in the southern states. O'Keeffe's Black Door with Red is just one of 30,000 objects in the collection.
Abstraction White Rose (1927) by Georgia O'KeeffeGeorgia O'Keeffe Museum
In her later years, O'Keeffe was a solitary figure. She preferred to live and work alone in the desert. She refused many interviews, and often rejected the judgements of art historians, who sought to link her to contemporary movements. In her mind, she was a singular artist.
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The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum
There are few better places to learn about this enigmatic artist than the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe. The museum is dedicated to her life and artistic legacy. Besides a great number of paintings and drawings, it also holds her library, archive, and a research centre.
