Georgia O’Keeffe: “My New Yorks,” an Exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago

Hear from Annelise K. Madsen, Gilda and Henry Buchbinder Associate Curator, Arts of the Americas, for a discussion on Georgia O’Keeffe: “My New Yorks”, an exhibition currently on view at the Art Institute of Chicago.

In November 1924, Georgia O’Keeffe moved into the Shelton Hotel, then the tallest residential skyscraper in the world. The building’s stunning views inspired the artist to explore the soaring geometries of midtown Manhattan in paintings, pastels, and drawings. The current exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago gathers together for the first time a major constellation of O’Keeffe’s city pictures—works that she called “my New Yorks”—and, equally important, presents them in relation to the great variety of aesthetic experimentation that characterized her mode of making during this crucial period in the mid-1920s into the 1930s.

Learn more from the show’s curator about these urban works and how they connect deeply with O’Keeffe’s broader innovative approach to modernist painting.

About the Speaker:
Annelise K. Madsen, Gilda and Henry Buchbinder Associate Curator, Arts of the Americas, joined the Art Institute of Chicago in 2011 and specializes in US painting, sculpture, and visual culture. She is particularly interested in elevating historical women artists—studying artworks in the permanent collection, stewarding acquisitions, developing exhibitions and programming, and presenting new research to recover and revalue the contributions and stories of female makers. Her current exhibition project is Georgia O’Keeffe: “My New Yorks” (opening June 2024). She is also preparing an exhibition on Mary Cassatt. Madsen curated and authored John Singer Sargent and Chicago’s Gilded Age (2018) and has co-curated and contributed to several other exhibitions and publications at the Art Institute. Additionally, she has contributed essays to such publications as Women Building History: Public Art at the 1893 Columbian Exposition (2011), American Art, and Winterthur Portfolio. Madsen holds a PhD in art history from Stanford University and a BA from Washington University in St. Louis.

This talk was recorded as part of our free 'Mornings With O'Keeffe' lecture series on the first Wednesday of every month. Visit our website to learn more about upcoming talks! okeeffemuseum.org/events

Thumbnail Artworks:
Left | Georgia O'Keeffe. Untitled (City Night), 1970s. Oil on canvas, 84 1/16 x 48 1/16 inches. Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. Gift of The Georgia O'Keeffe Foundation. © Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. [2006.5.542]

Right | Georgia O’Keeffe. The Shelton with Sunspots, N.Y. (detail), 1926. The Art Institute of Chicago, gift of Leigh B. Block. © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.