Looking at Georgia O'Keeffe's "Radiator Building" I felt the painting describing to me the new energetic life of the Big City that the 20's and 30's helped build and give a personality to. In the picture a skyscraper in New York City is pictured filling the night painting with light giving the city life at night. Behind it are pictured spotlights that you can see, giving the city a celebrity-feel as well similar to the lights you might see at a movie premier or a club. This picture shows how many people like O'Keeffe who came from small-town Wisconsin came to the big city and found an energy and life that was completely unknown until the time. The rise of New York City, the new capital of the world, the new Rome, was coming with its famous Art Deco buildings rising up daily. New York as well as other cities in the USA such as Chicago were becoming hubs for culture, life, commerce and trade. People were moving from the rural life of the previous decades and going to the cities to pursue their dreams. Even today people harbor feelings of leaving their homes behind for the energy and excitement of the big city. This painting is essential in understanding the mindset of the people of the 1920's; Excitement-driven with the ability to spend money wherever and whenever. The city helped bring people to their knees with the Great Depression and owing debt left and right. The city is still a dream for millions today, but hopefully those going will be a bit more money conscious.
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