Frank Lloyd Wright and Georgia O’Keeffe: Imagining Midwestern Landscapes

Born twenty years and sixty miles apart in southwest Wisconsin, Frank Lloyd Wright and Georgia O’Keeffe were deeply influenced by the unique landscapes of the late-nineteenth century Midwest. Friends for many years, O’Keeffe and Wright’s only documented meeting was at Taliesin in 1942 — an experience that helped inspire a painting O’Keeffe later gifted to Wright. In her new book, Through the Long Desert: Georgia O’Keeffe and Frank Lloyd Wright (Rizzoli Electa, September 2025), author Sarah Rovang considers both their enduring friendship and the influence of place and landscape writ large on the artistic development and careers of these two twentieth-century American icons. This talk emphasizes their shared origins in Wisconsin and interrogates how they carried early exposure to the divergent landscapes of Spring Green and Sun Prairie into their later work.

This lecture features new material not included in the book and never before publicly presented, including analysis of Wright and O’Keeffe’s creative engagement with the iconic red barns of Wisconsin. Rovang’s book, created in association with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, will be available for purchase and signing after the talk.