An exhibition at the Detroit Institute of Arts is shedding new light on Georgia O’Keeffe’s artistic range by focusing on her depictions of architecture, a subject that has received limited attention compared to her well-known floral and desert landscapes. The show, titled “Georgia O’Keeffe: Architecture,” features 36 paintings that span from the 1920s through the 1960s, providing an autobiographical perspective on her evolving engagement with buildings and structural forms.

Curated by Benjamin W. Colman, the exhibition is organized into three thematic sections corresponding to different phases of O’Keeffe’s life and locations where she lived and worked. The first section presents nine paintings of rural barns, farmhouses, and stables from the American Midwest and Canada, areas integral to her early years. These works, often characterized by muted colors and sharply angled geometric forms, depart from the vibrant, organic shapes more commonly associated with O’Keeffe’s art. According to Colman, this series reveals the precision and economy in her use of color and form, highlighting architecture as a key visual language in her oeuvre.

The middle section centers on O’Keeffe’s years in New York City between 1918 and 1949, when she resided in a penthouse apartment at the Shelton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan. From this vantage point, she painted views of skyscrapers, bridges, and the East River, capturing the urban landscape amid a period of rapid construction. Notable works include an iconic downward view of the Brooklyn Bridge and a nighttime cityscape titled “New York Street with Moon,” which juxtaposes architectural elements against a moonlit sky.

The final segment focuses on O’Keeffe’s later years in northern New Mexico, where she settled permanently in 1949 on a property that included a Spanish colonial-era adobe home. This phase features her signature adobe structures and curvilinear forms, with recurring motifs such as the weathered wooden patio door of her Abiquiu residence, which she painted repeatedly as it changed over time. The exhibit includes depictions of local landmarks like the Ranchos Church in Taos and the nearby Taos Pueblo.

Complementing the paintings are immersive video installations that recreate the environments of her New York and New Mexico homes, offering visitors a multisensory experience of the settings that inspired her work.

The exhibition also explores O’Keeffe’s connections with several prominent midcentury architects and designers, including Frank Lloyd Wright and the furniture designers Charles and Ray Eames, who created pieces for her adobe house. Other friends with whom she collaborated or maintained relationships include sculptor Isamu Noguchi and textile designer Alexander Girard.

According to Colman, the exhibition invites audiences to reconsider O’Keeffe’s legacy beyond her commonly recognized floral imagery, underscoring her enduring fascination with architectural forms and her impact on American art and design. The show runs through January 3 at the Detroit Institute of Arts.