Art Meets Fashion: A journey through Georgia O'Keeffe’s exhibition

Artist, feminist and fashion icon: Georgia O'Keeffe isn’t just one of American Modernism’s most important visual artists, she’s also one of fashion’s best-loved muses. From designers to photographers, emerging talents to international luxury brands, she’s inspired them all. In 1983, Calvin Klein travelled to her farm in Abiquiú, New Mexico, to shoot a campaign with Bruce Webber, so enamoured was he with her work. Next was Gareth Pugh, who reinterpreted the cow skull – one of O’Keeffe’s favourite motifs – in his 2015 show. The likes of Michael Kors, Valentino and Dior have all paid homage too.

Now, a temporary exhibition, running until 8 August at the Museo Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid, takes a look at her masterpieces. The first retrospective of O’Keeffe’s work to take place in Spain, the exhibition explores the dialogue between art and fashion – and forms the latest chapter of ‘Art Meets Fashion’, the collaboration between the museum and Las Rozas Village.

To celebrate the opening, we’ve curated a series of outfits inspired by the colour palettes and emotions in O’Keeffe’s work – reinforcing the notion that fashion is as much a form of personal expression as art.

“Many times, abstraction is the clearest form for that intangible thing that exists within me and that I can only clarify with pigments,” said O’Keeffe.

“With O'Keeffe’s chosen solitude comes the certainty that all the beauty she created with her art came exclusively from her – not because she inhabited a world saturated with information,” explains Luis Galliussi, architect, designer and curator of experience for Las Rozas Village.

“When you take a flower and really look at it, it is your world for a moment. I want to give that world to others,” said O'Keeffe.

For O’Keeffe, taking long walks and getting lost in nature was part of her creative process. She became a collector of flowers, feathers, stones and animal bones – motifs that Galliussi has paid homeage to at Las Rozas Village. There, he’s recreated the beauty of her works with giant orchids and New Mexico-inspired flower pots featuring geometric motifs.

Discover the Georgia O’Keeffe exhibition, featuring roughly 100 works, at the Museo Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza. The collection spans her career, from the watercolours and charcoals that New York by surprise in the 1910s to the linear minimalism of poppies, daffodils, white lilies and thorn apple in the 1960s.

“Most of the people in the city run around and don't have time to look at a flower. I want them to see it, whether they want to or not,” said O’Keeffe.

The American artist immersed herself in nature before recreating her emotions on the canvas.

The close-ups of O’Keefee’s flowers are considered sensual – an exuberant display of her thoughts and the nature that she saw around her.

In O'Keeffe's words: “I found that I could say things with colour and shapes that I couldn't express otherwise, things that had no words.”

“When I got to New Mexico I knew it was mine. As soon as I saw it, I knew it was my land. I've never seen anything like it, but it fit me exactly,” said O’Keeffe – who moved to New Mexico to be closer to nature.