The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, opened to the
public in July 1997, eleven years after the death of the artist from
whom it takes its name. Welcoming more than 2,225,000 visitors from all
over the world and being the most visited art museum in the state of New
Mexico, it is the only museum in the world dedicated to an
internationally known American woman artist. One of the most
significant artists of the 20th century, Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986)
was devoted to creating imagery that expressed what she called “the
wideness and wonder of the world as I live in it.” The Museum’s
collection of over 3,000 works comprises 1,149 O’Keeffe paintings,
drawings, and sculptures that date from 1901 to 1984, the year failing
eyesight forced O’Keeffe into retirement. The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum is
the largest single repository of O'Keeffe's work in the world.
Throughout the year, visitors can see a changing selection of these
works. In addition, the Museum presents special exhibitions that are
either devoted entirely to O’Keeffe’s work or combine examples of her
art with works by her American modernist contemporaries. The Museum
also organizes exhibitions of works by her contemporaries, as well as by
living artists of distinction.