5 Things About Georgia O'Keeffe: a car accident, stretching her own canvases, other artists in her orbit ...

Plus museums dedicated to women artists (there aren't many), her sister Ida's experience with Stieglitz, and a version of Starry Night

This week I’ve been sharing my researching into Georgia O’Keeffe with you. When I was working on The Artist’s Mind, I often found information that was interesting but didn’t necessarily fit into the text of the book itself. I added these bits and pieces to the end of each chapter as “Fun Facts” but for the most part those got removed in the editing process before publication. So, to wrap up my dive into O’Keeffe, I thought I’d share with you the four fun facts that I had about her and one more that’s an extension of what I’d already been exploring in terms of how anxiety and depression affected her creativity.

Georgia O’Keeffe Museum

Fun Fact: Santa Fe’s Georgia O’Keeffe Museum was the first museum in the United States dedicated to a female artist.

It opened in 1997, just over a decade after the artist’s death. That’s right, America didn’t have any museum dedicated to a single female artist’s work until almost the 21st century.

In addition to the museum, you can book tickets to tour O’Keeffe’s home and studio.

There are very few major museums dedicated to women’s art. According to the Internet, The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) in Washington, D.C. is the only major museum in the world solely dedicated to showcasing the achievements of women artists. Founded in 1987, the NMWA collection includes works by more than 5,500 women artists from around the globe, from the Renaissance to the present day.

Some other key museums/institutions dedicated to women’s art:

(below the paywall you can read about a bad omen on O’Keeffe’s wedding day, three other artists with mental health challenges she' corresponded regularly with, and the role perfectionistic anxiety played in her creative work …)

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