The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum

A visit to the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum was an afterthought to us amidst our desire to get to Santa Fe’s other attractions. Our reaction wasn’t a case of us slighting the museum. Instead, it was more of a case of not feeling familiar enough with her work to appreciate what we were seeing. However, our visit turned out to be one of the highlights of our Santa Fe stay.

We entered the museum about an hour before it closed. At the time of our visit, the paintings being displayed were centered around two themes: a recreation of O’Keeffe’s first show in Williamsburg, Virginia and a display of the works that the artist owned. Both exhibits gave a good overview of O’Keeffe’s styles. However, I was surprised that there were few works shown. I realize that the Williamsburg exhibit was intended to only show a very specific number of paintings. But, the personal works exhibit didn’t have that restriction. I attributed the smaller than expected number of displayed paintings to the size of the building, which could best be described as intimate. Still, the lack of works available for viewing didn’t diminish our enjoyment of those that were present. It’s just that we wanted to see more!

While I was left wishing there was more to see, I was impressed with the quality of the works in the museum and the descriptions that accompanied those works. The displays made it very easy to see why O’Keeffe is regarded as one of the premier artists of the 20th Century. The displays also turned O’Keeffe neophytes like us into people who could, after one visit, recognize and appreciate her work.

As I said before, we almost missed the O’Keeffe Museum because we weren’t familiar enough with her work and because we feared we might not have enough time. However, the museum’s intimate size and its excellent displays managed to make our fears irrelevant. I highly recommend a visit to the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum as a way to learn about and enjoy her work (which is exactly what a museum should do!).

The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. An adult admission will cost $5/adult.

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