Mental Floss

New Exhibition Highlights the Fashion of Georgia O’Keeffe

By Michele Debczak

1984 Georgia O’Keeffe portrait by Bruce Weber. Image credit: Bruce Weber and Nan Bush Collection, New York
1984 Georgia O’Keeffe portrait by Bruce Weber. Image credit: Bruce Weber and Nan Bush Collection, New York / 1984 Georgia O’Keeffe portrait by Bruce Weber. Image credit: Bruce Weber and Nan Bush Collection, New York
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When discussing Georgia O’Keeffe, it’s impossible to leave out the colorful florals and southwestern imagery that dominated her work, but a new exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum puts some of the focus on the less-explored facets of the painter's life. As The Creators Project reports, "Georgia O’Keeffe: Living Modern" includes portraits of the artist, and, for the first time in an art show, pieces from her wardrobe.

According to the Brooklyn Museum, O’Keeffe used fashion and posed photographs as tools for molding her public persona. The description page says that the exhibition “confirms and explores her determination to be in charge of how the world understood her identity and artistic values.”

The installation includes pieces from the artist’s early years, her time in New York in the 1920s and '30s, and the period in New Mexico that shaped her signature style. Her stark, self-made clothing can be seen both in person and in the portraits selected for the exhibit. Ansel Adams, Annie Leibovitz, Andy Warhol, and O’Keeffe’s husband, Alfred Stieglitz, are a few of the photographers whose work is on display.

1927 Georgia O'Keeffe portrait by Alfred Stieglitz. Image credit: National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred Stieglitz Collection

Suit circa 1960s. Image credit: Gavin Ashworth


Georgia O'Keeffe portrait by Alfred Stieglitz circa 1920–22. Image credit: Gift of The Georgia O’Keeffe Foundation, 2003.01.006. Georgia O’Keeffe Museum


Padded kimono circa 1960s/70s. Image credit: Gavin Ashworth

"Georgia O’Keeffe: Living Modern" is part of an ongoing program at the Brooklyn Museum titled "A Year of Yes: Reimagining Feminism." Focusing on the artist’s fashion decisions may seem like an odd move for a feminist art show, but her clothing choices helped O’Keeffe communicate power in a male-dominated field. Her androgynous style made a bold statement in the early 20th century, and modern designers like Calvin Klein, Victoria Beckham, and Céline continue to cite the icon as inspiration today. The exhibition opens March 3 and runs until July 23; discounted tickets go on sale January 24.

[h/t The Creators Project]