Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986), Starlight Night, Lake George, 1922 copyright Georgia O’Keeffe Museum/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

It’s certainly true that Georgia O’Keeffe is best known for her depictions of flowers and the American southwest. But my favorite O’Keeffe works have always been her paintings of New York City and those painted at Lake George, the latter of which relatively few have been included in exhibitions over the years. That is until now. I just last week visited Modern Nature: Georgia O’Keeffe and Lake George at the Hyde Collection in upstate New York. The entire show, the first of its kind, focuses on the large body of work O’Keeffe created at her husband’s — the great American photographer Alfred Stieglitz — family compound. From 1918 until 1934, O’Keeffe spent several months each year at the 36-acre Adirondack Mountain property on which she had a studio of her own. Her time spent there quite clearly served as a tremendous source of inspiration. It is also believed to have been essential in the development of her signature, modern style of abtracting nature. I so was pleased to see this very nice article that appeared this past Sunday in The New York Times about this noteworthy exhibition. If you can’t make it to the Hyde before it closes on September 15, perhaps you can see it at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum this fall/winter or the de Young Museum in San Francisco opening in February 2014.

www.hydecollection.org