“I went out one morning to look at [the Shelton Hotel],” said Georgia O’Keeffe, recalling the moment that inspired her to paint The Shelton with Sunspots, “and there was the optical illusion of a bite out of one side of the tower made by the sun, with sunspots against the building and against the sky.”
Best known for her paintings of flowers, plants, and the American Southwest, this work is part of a group of paintings O’Keeffe made of New York City between 1925–1930 that she called “My New Yorks.” In 1924, O’Keeffe and her husband, the photographer and art dealer Alfred Stieglitz, moved temporarily into the Shelton Hotel, a recently built skyscraper in New York’s growing skyline. At 31 stories, the Shelton was one of the tallest buildings in New York at that time. Few people had experienced the view of a city from that height. O’Keeffe loved to walk around Manhattan and study the views of the Shelton and other nearby buildings from the street. She noticed how the height differences and gaps between buildings seemed to give shape to the sky.
This resource is made possible through the generous support of the Terra Foundation for American Art.
