New York City inspired Georgia O'Keeffe’s series of skyscraper paintings. She lived in Manhattan for extended periods and translated its buildings, streets, and nighttime lights into sharply composed modernist images.
Her urban subjects included the Shelton Hotel, where she and Alfred Stieglitz lived for a time. Paintings such as Radiator Building—Night, New York use strong verticals, geometric shapes, and luminous color to present architecture as an almost abstract structure.
O'Keeffe’s New York paintings are sometimes overshadowed by her flowers and New Mexico landscapes. They are nevertheless central to her career because they show her engaging directly with the speed, height, and technological energy associated with modern American cities.