Georgia O’Keeffe is best known for her vivid, large-scale paintings of flowers, landscapes, and animal bones, where natural forms seem to flow and bend in a dreamlike way. However, a new exhibition at the Detroit Institute of Arts, Georgia O’Keeffe: Architecture, reveals a different side of the artist—one focused on the built environment. The show features nearly 40 works that highlight O’Keeffe’s fascination with structures such as farmhouses, skyscrapers, and even simple doors. “I wanted to tell a new story about an artist who is so familiar,” said Ben Coleman, a curator from Dia Art Foundation, who organized the exhibition. “We can take a fresh look at works that O’Keeffe always considered essential and celebrate them in the way she wanted to.” The idea for the exhibition came from O’Keeffe’s 1932 painting Stables, which is the only piece in the Dia’s collection included in the show. It depicts a peaceful, side view of a stable, with rich colors and subtle textures. Coleman was inspired by the precise use of geometry in this piece and began to explore other architectural works by O’Keeffe. This led to the discovery of her New York City cityscapes, many of which were painted from the high floor of the Shelton Hotel, where she and her husband, Alfred Steiglitz, lived. From this vantage point, O’Keeffe captured the gritty industrial life of Manhattan, including smokestacks and rows of unadorned buildings. These works, though far from her more famous flower paintings, reflect her ability to convey the spirit of a place through its structures. One of the most striking pieces in the exhibition is O’Keeffe’s 1949 painting of the Brooklyn Bridge. The piece presents a flattened view of the bridge’s arches, evoking the shapes of stained glass windows. The cables of the bridge are rendered in gracefully flowing lines, creating a sense of both abstraction and realism. “It’s a deeply personal painting,” Coleman said. “It documents a moment of transition for O’Keeffe, as she was leaving New York for New Mexico. It’s like looking through a stained glass window, capturing light and color in a poetic way.” The exhibition also highlights O’Keeffe’s repeated depictions of a patio door in her New Mexico home. After purchasing and restoring the house in 1945, she painted the door many times, creating a series of abstract yet precise works. These paintings, with their bold use of color and minimal perspective, place O’Keeffe alongside other modern artists like Agnes Martin and Mark Rothko. One of Martin’s letters to O’Keeffe after seeing one of these door paintings said, “It was a joyous experience and afterwards I knew more about the possibility of human response.” The exhibition also includes immersive digital experiences that allow visitors to step into the spaces where O’Keeffe painted, such as the high floors of the Shelton Hotel and her New Mexico patio. These interactive elements invite viewers to slow down and notice the subtle details of place that O’Keeffe so carefully observed. Georgia O’Keeffe: Architecture is on view from 11 September to 3 January at the Detroit Institute of Arts.