Eero Saarinen’s minimalist designs were so appealing to O’Keeffe that she had at least three pieces in her collection – a pedestal table, a tulip chair, and a womb chair. A significant departure from tradition, Saarinen’s Pedestal Table uses a single, sleek leg to support a round top. Similarly, the Tulip Chair sits on an identical sleek leg. Saarinen strove to simplify these objects reducing them down to their most essential, eschewing the ubiquitous 4-leg form which he deemed too busy. O’Keeffe took a similar approach in much of her abstract art, reducing subject matter to its most essential.
The Tulip Chair is not on view in the exhibition as it is part of the Historic Home Tour.