Georgia O’Keeffe became the first woman to receive a solo exhibition at MoMA in 1946.
The Museum of Modern Art in New York mounted a major retrospective of O’Keeffe’s work in 1946. The exhibition was organized by the museum’s director, Alfred H. Barr Jr., and recognized her importance within American modernism.
The retrospective was significant because MoMA had opened in 1929 and had already become one of the leading institutions for modern art. O’Keeffe’s solo show marked an important institutional milestone for women artists as well as for her own career.
O’Keeffe had been exhibiting widely for decades by that point, including through Alfred Stieglitz’s galleries. Her work ranged from abstractions and flowers to New York architecture and New Mexico landscapes, making the retrospective a survey of a varied career rather than a celebration of only one subject.