As soon as Georgia O\u2019Keeffe was shown Ghost Ranch, she knew it was her place.<\/p>\n
The remote property in the shadow of the mountains north of Santa Fe in New Mexico would become the artist\u2019s summer residence for decades \u2013 a setting that fascinated her, inspired several paintings and is where her ashes were scattered. \u201cI knew the minute I got up here that this was where I would live,\u201d she once said.<\/p>\n
Now, a new exhibition at the Courtauld will shed light on O\u2019Keeffe\u2019s home at Ghost Ranch and how it shaped her art and life.<\/p>\n
Almost two dozen works will make up the show, titled Georgia O\u2019Keeffe: Ghost Ranch, which opens in October 2027, with most of them having never before been shown in the UK.<\/p>\n
Red and Yellow Cliffs, 1940, is one of a number of O\u2019Keeffe\u2019s works explicitly influenced by the land that surrounded Ghost Ranch. Photograph: Georgia O\u2019Keeffe\/\u00a9 2026 Georgia O\u2019Keeffe Museum \/ DACS Courtesy of Georgia O\u2019Keeffe Museum. Photo: Tim Nighswander\/IMAGING4ART<\/p>\n
Dr Karen Serres, senior curator of paintings at the Courtauld Gallery, told the Guardian that few in the UK are aware of the role Ghost Ranch played in the development of one of the most important 20th-century American modernists.<\/p>\n
\u201cGhost Ranch was such an important part of her life, and it illuminates a large part of her art in general,\u201d said Serres.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor example, in her flower paintings, where she goes really, really, really close up and says, \u2018I want to do that because I want to make people look at things that are overlooked.\u2019 She does the exact same thing for these landscapes.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Keeffe moved into the property, which was part of a sprawling 21,000 acre estate, in 1934, initially renting a room there before eventually purchasing it and making it her permanent home.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs soon as I saw it, that was my country,\u201d she once said. \u201cI\u2019d never seen anything like it before, but it fitted to me exactly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ghost Ranch was one of two properties O\u2019Keeffe lived at in New Mexico. The other was a house in the village of Abiqui\u00fa, 16 miles south of the ranch, which is preserved and open<\/a> to the public.<\/p>\n Ghost Ranch is not open to the general public but was somewhere that O\u2019Keeffe \u201calways felt more at home<\/a>\u201d, according to the New Yorker\u2019s Calvin Tomkins, who profiled her in 1974.<\/p>\n \u201cThe solitude, the stillness and the harsh, dry, splendid landscape are more her world,\u201d he wrote. \u201cAnimal skulls and bleached antlers hang on the walls of her patio, and rocks picked up on her walks and camping trips spill in profusion over low tables and shelves.\u201d<\/p>\n O\u2019Keeffe added to the mystique around Ghost Ranch when she suggested in interviews that the home had been the scene of a murder before she bought it, and many of her most famous photoshoots \u2013 included with Cecil Beaton for Vogue<\/a> \u2013 took place there.<\/p>\n Gerald\u2019s Tree I, 1937, is another piece that found O\u2019Keeffe committing to canvas the unique landscape in which she lived. Photograph: Georgia O\u2019Keeffe\/\u00a9 2026 Georgia O\u2019Keeffe Museum \/ DACS<\/p>\n Despite a significant international profile, O\u2019Keeffe\u2019s work has rarely been seen in the UK; Serres says only six out of the two dozen works on show at the Courtauld have been shown in Britain before.<\/p>\n O\u2019Keeffe\u2019s reputation in the UK hasn\u2019t always been so exalted.<\/p>\n After her Hayward show in 1993, Britain\u2019s male critics unleashed a torrent of dismissive reviews<\/a>. She was called a \u201ccommercial illustrator\u201d, \u201cirredeemably amateur\u201d, an artist who \u201cmade good monthly images on calendars\u201d and \u201cgrossly overrated\u201d.<\/p>\n