Georgia O'Keeffe Museum

Museum Facts

Philanthropists Anne and John Marion, part-time residents of Santa Fe, founded the Museum in November 1995.

The Museum opened on July 17, 1997 and welcomed more than 600,000 visitors in its first three years.

The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum is dedicated to perpetuating the artistic legacy of Georgia O'Keeffe and to the study and interpretation of American Modernism (late nineteenth century - present).

It is the only art museum in the world dedicated to the work of an American woman artist of international stature.

The Museum's permanent collection of O'Keeffe's work is the largest of any museum in the world.

As of December 2009, our collection includes 2,999 works. Foremost among those items are the 1,154 works by O'Keeffe herself, comprising the largest repository of her work available to the public in a single institution. There are 146 oils, 3 sculptures, 26 charcoals, 18 clays, 16 pencil drawings, 12 pastels, 89 watercolors, 672 sketches, and 149 photographs. Subjects range from the artist's iconic flowers and bleached desert skulls to nudes, landscapes, cityscapes, still lifes, and abstractions, dating from 1901 to 1984. The other 1,845 works in the collection are works by other artists.

Highlights of the collection include: Black Lines, 1916; Blue II, 1916; Sunrise and Little Clouds No. II, 1916; Nude Series XII, 1917; Evening Star No. VI, 1917; Portrait – W – No. III, 1917; Untitled (Abstraction/Portrait of Paul Strand), 1917; Three Women, 1918; Woman with Blue Shawl, 1918; Series I – From the Plains, 1919; Calla Lily Turned Away, 1923; Calla Lily in Tall Glass – No. 2, 1923; Storm Cloud, Lake George, 1923; Autumn Trees, The Maple, 1924; Petunia No. 2, 1924; A Street, 1926; Abstraction White, 1927; Abstraction White Rose, 1927; Dark Iris No. III, 1927; Black Hollyhock, Blue Larkspur, 1929; On the Old Road to Santa Fe, 1930/31; Jimson Weed, 1932; Red Hills and White Flower, 1937; Bella Donna, 1939; Black Place III, 1944; Pelvis Series Red and Yellow, 1945; and, My Last Door, 1954.

The collection includes major gifts contributed by The Burnett Foundation, The Georgia O'Keeffe Foundation, Anna Marie and Juan Hamilton, Gerald and Kathleen Peters, Anne W. Marion, The Stephane Janssen Trust, Anne W. Phillips, and Clare and Eugene Thaw.

The Museum building was designed by architect Richard Gluckman, whose projects have included a gallery addition at the Whitney Museum of American Art for its permanent collection in New York and the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as well as several prominent galleries in the Chelsea art district in New York City.

The Museum's orientation video was produced and directed by Perry Miller Adato, an award winning producer. She has received the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Television Documentary and the DuPont/Columbia Award for her film: Picasso–a Painter's Diary, as well as several Emmy nominations.

An audio tour guide of the Museum is available to visitors. The curators of exhibitions narrate the tour, describing and providing background information for works on view.

Education and outreach programs at the Museum include internships, teacher workshops and seminars, summer and after-school arts programs for young people, a lecture series and development of a specialized school curriculum.

The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Research Center opened in summer of 2001. It provides stipends to scholars to pursue projects relevant to the study of American Modernism (late nineteenth century – present) and to the art and life of Georgia O'Keeffe. Areas of study include art history, architectural history and design, literature, music, and photography.

The Museum Shop carries a wide variety of merchandise including posters, catalogues, books, note cards, jewelry, postcards, glass and ceramic pieces, and other gift items.

The O'Keeffe Café, adjacent to the Museum on its west side, serves fresh, simple, seasonal dishes.