Metropolitan Muse- The Art Institute of Chicago has assembled the exhibition Georgia O'Keeffe:

The Art Institute of Chicago showcases a lesser known side of Georgia O'Keeffe that found inspiration in Manhattan

- By John O'Hern

Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986) was known for her large, intimate flower paintings and her scenes of Northern New Mexico where she lived from 1949 until her death. Between 1925 and 1930, however, she painted New York, often from her apartment high in the Shelton Hotel where she lived with her husband Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946). She called the drawings and paintings my New Yorks. She painted from the 30th floor of the then tallest residential skyscraper in the world, as well as on her many walks around the city. She said, One can't paint New York as it is, but rather as it is felt.

Georgia O´Keeffe (1887- 1987) East River the 30th Story of the Shelton Hotel, 1928. Oil on canvas. New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, Connecticut, Stephen B. Lawrence Fund, 1958. © Georgia O´Keeffe Museum.

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The Art Institute of Chicago has assembled the exhibition Georgia O´Keeffe: “My New Yorks” which continues through September 22.James Rondeau, president and director of the Art Institute, writes in the foreword to the exhibition catalog, Even as many of her contemporaries championed the city as a site of modern dynamism, a triumph of industry over nature, O'Keeffe asserted her artistic independence by portraying the city as an amalgamation of the organic and the inorganic, the natural and the constructed. This reflected her perception of the city, a radically new lived experience as she moved horizontally on the streets of midtown Manhattan and vertically within her skyscraper home in the Shelton Hotel. But more broadly, her New Yorks exemplified O'Keeffe's belief that her paintings needed to manifest her thoughts and feelings rather than simply transcribe facts.