Georgia O'Keeffe

A revelatory look the architecture-inspired paintings of an iconic twentieth-century artist

Best-known for her paintings of flowers and landscapes, Georgia O’Keeffe was also deeply engaged in portraying the built environment. From New York City skyscrapers to adobe homes in New Mexico, O’Keeffe transformed everyday structures into powerful expressions of place, identity, and modern life. Shining new light on a bold and original dimension of O’Keeffe’s practice, this book includes essays by leading scholars that trace the evolution of the artist’s architectural works from the 1920s through the 1960s and draws on O’Keeffe’s correspondence with luminaries such as Frank Lloyd Wright and Alexander Girard. Whether focusing on the soaring verticality of Manhattan, the vernacular charm of barns in upstate New York, or the contemplative spaces of the Southwest, O’Keeffe mined the geometry, form, and color of buildings to create works that are at once personal and universal, inviting viewers to reconsider how modern eyes can perceive and understand the structures that surround us. 

Distributed for the Detroit Institute of Arts

Exhibition schedule:

Detroit Institute of Arts

(September 13, 2026–January 3, 2027)