When it opened in 1923, New York’s Shelton Hotel was the tallest residential skyscraper in the world, and the following year, a 37-year-old Georgia O’Keeffe became one of its residents. Several of the works in O’Keeffe’s latest retrospective, “My New Yorks,” coming soon to Atlanta’s High Museum of Art, are views from the artist’s 30th-floor apartment or views of the Shelton from the New York streets. The Shelton with Sunspots, N.Y. (1936) was one of the artist’s personal favorites of her long career.

Georgia O’Keeffe, The Shelton with Sunspots, (1931). © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum.

The show, organized by the Art Institute of Chicago, where it first appeared this past summer, contains around 100 works, made during the 1920s and ’30s across a range of media. Although O’Keeffe first moved to New York in 1907, she experienced a period of great creative output between 1924 and 1929 after she moved into the Shelton—a period well represented in this exhibition.

Georgia O’Keeffe, Manhattan (1932). © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. Photo courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C. / Art Resource, NY.

“My New Yorks” takes its title from the affectionate nickname O’Keeffe gave her city landscapes. They weren’t met with the immediate approval O’Keeffe would have wanted. Her husband, photographer/dealer Alfred Stieglitz, initially refused to exhibit them in his gallery, worried that their subject matter was too masculine—a criticism O’Keeffe would face on multiple occasions throughout her career.

Georgia O’Keeffe, Pink Dish and Green Leaves (1928-1929). © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum.

O’Keeffe’s cityscapes have often taken a backseat compared to the artist’s other series, particularly the botanical works for which she is best known. But, for the first time, this period of O’Keeffe’s work is being celebrated, not as a detour from her more famous themes but as a core part of her practice.

Georgia O’Keeffe, White Flower (1929). © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art.

“‘My New Yorks’ offers a “wonderful opportunity to highlight this important, but perhaps less recognized period of O’Keeffe’s artistic life and demonstrate how her ‘New Yorks’ exemplify her innovation as a Modernist,” the High’s director, Rand Suffolk, said in press materials.

Georgia O’Keeffe, City Night (1926). © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. Courtesy of the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

Also included in “My New Yorks” are paintings of subjects that have defined O’Keeffe’s legacy: the large close-up views of flowers and the animal skulls which dominated her practice during her years in New Mexico after leaving New York in 1929. In addition to the show’s many paintings, photographs both of O’Keeffe (taken by Stieglitz) and by O’Keeffe will be on display, including a sentimental shot she took of the Chrysler Building from the window of the Waldorf Astoria hotel.

Georgia O’Keeffe, Cow’s Skull with Calico Roses (1931). © The Art Institute of Chicago.

The works on display demonstrate the range of O’Keeffe’s talents across different media as well as her unique ability to create atmospheric texture. After all, she did say that “one can’t paint New York as it is, but rather as it is felt.” The artworks in “My New Yorks” are O’Keeffe’s love letters to the city, and are finally receiving the attention they deserve.

Georgia O’Keeffe, East River from the 30th Story of the Shelton Hotel (1928). © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum.

“Georgia O’Keeffe’s lasting significance as a preeminent American modernist is undeniable, yet her urban paintings, featuring soaring skyscrapers and dramatic elevated views, are less familiar,” said Sarah Kello Oehler, the Art Institute of Chicago’s curator of arts of the Americas. “By situating her Manhattan works within the context of her innovative output of the 1920s, we can better understand the beauty and complexity of O’Keeffe’s bold, experimental vision at a key moment in her career.”

Georgia O’Keeffe, New York, Night (1928-1929). © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. Photo by Bill Ganzel.

“Georgia O’Keeffe: My New Yorks” will be at the High Museum, 1280 Peachtree Rd. NE, Atlanta, Georgia, from October 25 to February 16 2025. 

Georgia O’Keeffe, Pattern of Leaves (1923). © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. Courtesy of The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.