Channel Georgia O’Keeffe’s visions of Hawaii with these wallpapers

On Saturday, the New York Botanical Garden opened its summer exhibition—"Georgia O'Keeffe: Visions of Hawai'i." The show, which unfurls with lush plants both real and imagined, covers O'Keeffe's little-known body of work produced while visiting the tropical archipelago. O'Keeffe, who is of course best known for her powerful paintings of the American Southwest, journeyed to the nation's fiftieth state in 1939. By this point in her career, she was already considered to be one of the country's preeminent living artists. It's not difficult to imagine that a woman so immersed in observing and depicting botanical subjects would be eager to visit this Pacific paradise. However, O'Keeffe was less than enthused.

The impetus for her trip was in fact a commission from the Hawaiian Pineapple Company. According to the deal, O'Keeffe would produce two paintings for the company which could be used in print advertisements. In exchange, O'Keeffe would receive monetary compensation, as well as free rein to explore the Big Island and paint what she pleased.

It didn't take long for O'Keeffe's initial skepticism to melt away. She fell in love with the island, its nature, and its flower-focused gift-giving practices. At one point during her sojourn, she wrote back to her husband and said, "My idea of nature has not been beautiful enough." While O'Keeffe did eventually, and somewhat abruptly, return to the mainland, her visit to Hawai'i was incredibly productive. In just a few weeks, she produced twenty separate paintings.

Seventeen of those works are now hung on the New York Botanical Garden's gallery walls. However, what makes this exhibition particularly special is what comes before the traditional installation. Throughout the Botanical Garden's greenhouses, resident landscape architects have arranged various plantings to recall the types of Hawaiian landscapes that O'Keeffe would have seen. Colorful lantana flowers are nestled next to red hibiscuses, while a variety of palm tree species can be found throughout the glass-enclosed space.

This exhibition formula, which few besides the New York Botanical Garden could pull off, is not unprecedented. In past seasons, the Botanical Garden's Dale Chihuly, Frida Kahlo, and Claude Monet exhibitions were met with widespread acclaim. However, there is something about this specific show, and its unique focus, that may prove to be particularly inspiring for garden and art enthusiasts alike.

Post-Metro North trek, many a native New Yorker might return home with dreams of creating a humid little greenhouse. But for those without a prolific green-thumb, thankfully the lush tropics are a recurring muse in the wonderful world of wallpaper. De Gournay, an established star, has proved this to be true time and time again, while newer designers—from Voutsa to Twyla, an Austin-based print company which debuted their first wallpapers earlier this week at Sight Unseen—are carving out greenery-geared pathways of their own. Above, find inspiration from six works included in the exhibition, as well as a hand full of beautiful wallpapers to make your home bloom on.

"Georgia O'Keeffe: Visions of Hawai'i," is on view at the New York Botanical Garden from Saturday, May 19, 2018, to Sunday, October 28, 2018.