Georgia O’Keeffe is largely known for her paintings of flowers and desert landscapes, but a new exhibition opening Friday at the Detroit Institute of Arts is setting out to change that.

The museum has assembled what it says is the first exhibition to gather the full scope of O’Keeffe’s architectural paintings. It shows the artist’s sustained, decades-long engagement with architecture and unearths her sustained friendships with well-known architects like Frank Lloyd Wright.

The DIA built the exhibition of 36 of her paintings of barns, skyscrapers, adobe walls, church facades and other buildings around O’Keeffe’s 1932 “Stables” painting, a work owned by the DIA. The other artworks are on loan from the Art Institute of Chicago, the Legion of Honor in San Francisco and other American museums, DIA Director, President and CEO Salvador Salort-Pons said.

“The DIA has long been proud to count Georgia O’Keeffe’s Stables among our most treasured holdings, and it is a particular joy to see it take on new meaning at the heart of this exhibition,” Salort-Pons said in a news release.

“Georgia O’Keeffe: Architecture is a landmark moment — not just for this institution, but for how the world understands one of America’s greatest modern artists. To present the first full accounting of this body of work is an honor, and we believe it will resonate with visitors long after they leave the galleries.”

O’Keeffe explores geometry, lines and color in the architectural paintings done between the 1920s and 1960. The exhibition curated by the DIA includes images of New York’s vertical skyscrapers, a view of the Brooklyn Bridge through a window and abstracts of the Manhattan skyline. Among the featured works are paintings of barns, stables and farmhouses in upstate New York, O’Keeffe’s home state of Wisconsin and the coast of Quebec along with the adobe structures of her New Mexico homes.

“Georgia O’Keeffe spent her career looking closely at the world around her and finding new meaning in it,” said Ben Colman, DIA Curator of American Art and the organizer of the O’Keeffe exhibit.

Drawing on O’Keeffe’s personal letters and writings, the DIA found that the artist’s interest in architecture went well beyond painting. She maintained long-term friendships and correspondence with architectural figures such as Wright and Alexander Girard.

Visitors will find two immersive digital video experiences. One re-creates the view of the East River in New York from O’Keeffe’s apartment windows, offering visitors a glimpse into what her view would look like today. The other gives a view of O’Keeffe’s New Mexico patio as it appears today at different times of day.

Georgia O’Keeffe: Architecture opens at the DIA on Friday and runs through Jan. 3. Tickets are $30 for adults and $20 for residents of Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties, which support the museum through an operating millage.

The DIA declined to say what it invested to curate and stage the exhibition. Salort-Pons said the museum projects it will draw 125,000 or more visitors to the exhibit. With ticket prices, that would put gross revenue for the exhibition in the range of $2.5 million to $3.75 million.

Story by: Sherri Welch | Crain’s Detroit Business