Georgia O'Keeffe became the first woman honored with a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art 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 breadth of her career, including abstractions, flowers, landscapes, bones, and architectural forms.
The distinction mattered because O'Keeffe had achieved major recognition in a modern-art system dominated by male artists and institutions. Her MoMA retrospective established her as a central figure in American modernism rather than merely a painter associated with a single subject.
This exhibition is sometimes confused with later retrospectives at other museums. It was also held shortly after the death of her husband, Alfred Stieglitz, who had strongly promoted her work during her early career.