Georgia O'Keeffe: "My New Yorks"

 

I have always thought of Georgia O'Keeffe as a southwestern artist living on her ranch near Abiquiu New Mexico.  However, she lived with her husband, photographer Alfred Stieglitz in New York City for a number of years.  While there, she painted city scenes along with her paintings of flowers and shells.  The painting above is "The View From the 30th Story of the Shelton Hotel.  If I had seen this painting all by itself somewhere, I would never have guessed it was painted by Georgia O'Keeffe.

These are just a sample of some of the paintings I saw in the exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago.  

This one is "The Radiator Building - Night".

This one is a painting of the Shelton Hotel where she was living.  It's called "Shelton Hotel NY No. 1".

While painting these views of New York, she also painted scenes from the natural world such as the flowers she is known for.

She had old dried out bones and branches sent from New Mexico to New York and slipped them into some of her most famous pieces.  

This one is called "Cow's Skull with Calico Roses".  

Here is a photo of O'Keeffe with one of those skulls that she had shipped to New York.  She hung it on the balcony at the hotel and used it as inspiration for her art works.

I loved so many of the paintings in this exhibit but, this one I especially liked.  It's called "East River from Shelton".  I love the colors in this painting.  It has that earthy southwestern look even though it's an east coast, urban scene.  

This exhibit will travel next to the High Museum of Art in Atlanta Georgia.  It opens October 25th there.  If you are in that area, I highly recommend seeing the exhibit.