Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1 will be
on view
in Los Angeles and Hong Kong, before returning
to New York for
exhibition in Sotheby’s York
Avenue galleries beginning 15 November**. The
work
comes to auction with an estimate of
$10/15 million*, well in excess of the
artist’s
auction record***. Also on offer from the
Museum’s collection and sold
to benefit the Acquisitions Fund is On the Old Santa Fe Road, estimated at $2/3
million , and Untitled (Skunk Cabbage), estimated at $500/750,000.
“This deaccession is part of the maturation of the
Georgia O’Keeffe institution and aligns with our future collecting strategy,
coupled with planned giving and donations,” said Rob Kret, Director of the
Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. “This has been a thoughtful process that has
unfolded over the course of more than a year, and the deaccession is fully
supported by the donor of the three works and was unanimously approved by the
Georgia O’Keeffe board of directors. All of the income from this sale will be
used for future acquisitions to support the growth of our dynamic, vibrant
O’Keeffe collection.”
Cody Hartley, Director of Curatorial Affairs at the
Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, said: “Letting go of these pieces is a
sacrifice, and we do not take this decision lightly. We are fortunate to have
equally strong examples of similar subjects, including the masterful Bella
Donna, which bears a close resemblance to Jimson Weed. Through this
sale we have the opportunity to substantially fund an acquisitions endowment
that will allow us to be competitive when pursuing iconic O’Keeffe masterworks.
This sale will provide funding to strengthen and refine our collection,
allowing us to represent the full breadth of Georgia O’Keeffe’s artistic
accomplishments.”
Elizabeth Goldberg, Head of Sotheby’s American Art
Department, commented: “It is a great privilege to offer the
remarkable Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1 on behalf of the Georgia O’Keeffe
Museum. While the artist’s celebrated flower paintings make up a relatively
small portion of her prolific career, they are firmly planted in the popular
consciousness. Among this series, Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1 is a
particularly stunning and familiar example, painted in a large scale that
distinguishes it within her oeuvre. O’Keeffe worked throughout her life to
express her unique, uncompromising and crystal-clear vision, and today she is
one of few distinctly-American artists with truly international appeal.”
Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1 was owned
originally by the artist’s sister Anita O’Keeffe Young, whose estate was sold
at Sotheby’s in December 1987. It was subsequently included in two private
collections before being donated to the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum by The Burnett
Foundation in 1996. The work hung in the White House for 6 years at the request
of First Lady Laura Bush, and has been featured in nearly every major
retrospective on the artist, including those at the Museum of Modern Art in New
York and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
The earliest recorded examples of Georgia
O’Keeffe’s magnified flower images date to 1924, though she painted flowers on
a smaller scale even earlier. Although connotations of sexuality and gender
were continuously ascribed to these works, O’Keeffe rejected these types of
associations. The intent behind these images was to express the exuberance with
which she personally experienced the natural world, as well as to compel her
viewer to observe what is in reality a small and delicate entity in a new and
more profound way.
The flower paintings were shown first in the “Seven
Americans” exhibition, organized by her then- husband Alfred Stieglitz at the
Anderson Galleries in March 1925. O’Keeffe’s work was exhibited alongside
others by John Marin, Arthur Dove, Charles Demuth, Paul Strand and Stieglitz
himself. Unlike these painters, O’Keeffe had not studied outside of the United
States, and her pieces were praised for being free of European models and
antecedents.3
O’Keeffe first saw Jimson weed growing in northern
New Mexico – a setting that would come to define much of her career – and
painted the present work in 1932. At a significant 48 by 40 inches, Jimson
Weed/White Flower No. 1 is one of the rare instances early in her career
that O’Keeffe chose a canvas size noticeably larger than her usual format. The
same year, the artist had started plans for a mural construction for Radio City
Music Hall, which was then under construction in Rockefeller Center. This may
have led her to experiment with a larger format in her paintings.
Also on offer from the Museum’s collection
and
benefiting the Acquisitions Fund is
On
the Old Santa
Fe Road (est. $2/3 million), which attests to the
deep
inspiration O’Keeffe gleaned from the stark
simplicity of the desert landscape
of New Mexico –
the place she made her permanent home in 1949.
O’Keeffe’s
depiction captures the rugged geological
forms and brilliant colors of the
American
Southwest.
Untitled
(Skunk Cabbage), made prior to her first visit to New Mexico in
1929, focuses on the smaller form of this distinctive plant, one of the first
to bloom in the spring (right, est. $500/750,000).
ABOUT THE GEORGIA O’KEEFFE MUSEUM
To inspire all current and future
generations, the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum preserves, presents and advances the
artistic legacy of Georgia O’Keeffe and modernism through innovative public
engagement, education, and research. Opened in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1997,
the Museum counts O’Keeffe’s two New Mexico homes as part of its extended
collection. The Museum’s collections, exhibitions, research center,
publications and educational programs contribute toscholarly discourse and
serve a diverse audience. For more information please visit www.okeeffemuseum.org.
