Skyscrapers and smokestacks: the grittier side of Georgia O’Keeffe

Beyond her famed paintings of flowers and landscapes, the American artist created stunning studies of urban architecture Georgia O’Keeffe is celebrated for her ethereal depictions of flowers, sunlight, landscapes and animal bones, their gracefully swooping forms dripping with organic curves and seemingly on the verge of melting before our eyes. Such an approach would seem to be quite at odds with the firm, straight lines of farmhouses and barns, to say nothing of the electrified skyscrapers of New York City – and yet that is exactly what is centered in the Detroit Institute of Arts’s new show Georgia O’Keeffe: Architecture. “I wanted to tell a new story about an artist who is so familiar,” said Dia curator Ben Coleman, who oversaw this collection of close to 40 works from the famed artist. “We can take a fresh look at works that O’Keeffe always considered essential and celebrate them in the way she wanted to.” Continue reading...

Read it at The Guardian (Culture) ↗

← Front page