Georgia O'Keeffe became the first woman artist to receive a retrospective at MoMA in 1946.
The Museum of Modern Art in New York presented a major retrospective of O'Keeffe's work in 1946. The exhibition recognized the scale and distinctiveness of her career, which by then included abstraction, flowers, bones, architecture, and landscapes.
The retrospective was organized by Dorothy C. Miller, a prominent curator at MoMA. It was a significant institutional milestone because major museums had historically given far fewer solo exhibitions to women than to men.
O'Keeffe's MoMA recognition came during a period when American modernism was gaining international attention. Although the exhibition strengthened her public standing, her work was often interpreted through assumptions about gender, symbolism, and her relationship with Alfred Stieglitz. Her paintings continue to be studied on their own terms as influential examples of American modernist practice.