East River from the Shelton Hotel

Georgia O'Keeffe

1928 · Oil on canvas · Modern and Contemporary Art

The Shelton Hotel opened in midtown Manhattan in 1924 as the tallest hotel in the world. O’Keeffe, who lived in the Shelton between 1925 and 1936, took advantage of the bird’s-eye view from her apartment on the thirtieth floor to capture this panoramic, aerial view of the East River waterfront, looking across to Long Island City, Queens. Rendered in dull tones and pictured with factory stacks belching filthy smoke into the air, the hazy composition presents an inhospitable, industrial landscape that betrays the painter’s increasing dissatisfaction with modern urban life.

Artist

Georgia O'Keeffe

Date

1928

Medium

Oil on canvas

Department

Modern and Contemporary Art

Credit line

Alfred Stieglitz Collection, Bequest of Georgia O'Keeffe, 1986