Georgia O’Keeffe’s enduring connection to Ghost Ranch, a remote property near Santa Fe, New Mexico, will be the focus of a new exhibition opening next October at the Courtauld Gallery in London. The show, titled *Georgia O’Keeffe: Ghost Ranch*, will feature around two dozen works, most of which have not previously been exhibited in the United Kingdom.
O’Keeffe first encountered Ghost Ranch in the 1930s and quickly recognized it as a place where she belonged, later making it her summer residence for decades. The landscape surrounding the 21,000-acre estate north of Santa Fe deeply influenced her artistic vision, inspiring numerous paintings and becoming a central element of her creative output. She once remarked, “I knew the minute I got up here that this was where I would live,” emphasizing the impact the location had on her life and work.
Dr. Karen Serres, senior curator of paintings at the Courtauld, highlighted the significance of Ghost Ranch in O’Keeffe’s oeuvre, noting that the environment shaped much of her art. Serres pointed to O’Keeffe’s close-up flower paintings, where she sought to draw viewers’ attention to often overlooked details, and compared this approach to how O’Keeffe treated the landscapes of Ghost Ranch. “Ghost Ranch was such an important part of her life, and it actually illuminates a large part of her art in general,” Serres said.
O’Keeffe initially rented a room on the estate in 1934 and eventually purchased the property, making it a permanent home alongside another residence in Abiquiú, New Mexico, located 16 miles south of Ghost Ranch. While the Abiquiú house is open to the public today, Ghost Ranch remains private. According to the writer Calvin Tomkins, who profiled O’Keeffe for *The New Yorker* in 1974, she felt a stronger personal connection to Ghost Ranch due to its solitude and stark, rugged environment. He described the space as filled with animal skulls and bleached antlers, reflecting the artist’s relationship with the natural world.
The mystique around Ghost Ranch was also fueled by O’Keeffe herself, who hinted in interviews that the home had a dark history before she acquired it, and by the fact that many of her notable photo sessions—including those with photographer Cecil Beaton for *Vogue*—were held there.
Despite O’Keeffe’s international stature, her work has had limited exposure in the UK. Until now, only six of the approximately 24 pieces in the Courtauld show have ever been displayed there. O’Keeffe’s critical reception in Britain has been mixed over time. Her 1993 Hayward Gallery exhibition received dismissive reviews from some male critics, who characterized her as a “commercial illustrator” and questioned the seriousness of her work. In 2016, a Tate retrospective sought to challenge long-standing interpretive clichés, particularly the notion that her flower paintings symbolized female genitalia—a narrative often tied to conservative perspectives.
Dr. Serres believes the forthcoming exhibition will provide an opportunity to reassess O’Keeffe’s legacy and deepen understanding of her artistry beyond the common perceptions. “She’s known as just this formidable female artist,” Serres said. “But actually seeing her work, understanding what she’s about, I don’t think we are there yet.”