Dark Abstraction
- Artist
- Georgia O'Keeffe, American, 1887–1986
- Date
- 1924
- Material
- Oil on canvas
- Classification
- Paintings
- Current Location
- On View, Gallery 334
- Dimensions
- 25 3/8 x 21 1/8 in. (64.5 x 53.7 cm)
framed: 25 5/8 x 21 3/8 x 2 1/4 in. (65.1 x 54.3 x 5.7 cm) - Credit Line
- Gift of Charles E. and Mary Merrill
- Rights
- © Georgia O'Keeffe Museum / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, NY
- Object Number
- 187:1955
NOTES
Despite this painting’s modest size, its abstracted, organic forms evoke a monumentality and reverence for nature. Delicate folds of red and green call to mind the velvety, sensual surface and shapes of flower petals. Or, the dramatic plummet of the white line suggests a deep cleft in the earth’s shifting plates. One of the most recognized American artists of the 20th century, Georgia O’Keeffe often selected details of nature as her subjects and enlarged or distilled them until they took on a new appearance.
Provenance
1935 - 1955
Charles E. and Mary Merrill, St. Louis, Missouri; Paris, France [1]
1955 -
Saint Louis Art Museum, given by Charles E. and Mary Merrill [2]
Notes:
[1] Charles Merrill purchased the painting from an unknown source in 1935. He and his wife gave the painting to the museum in 1955 [SLAM document files].
[2] Minutes of the Administrative Board of Control of the City Art Museum, May 5, 1955.
Charles E. and Mary Merrill, St. Louis, Missouri; Paris, France [1]
1955 -
Saint Louis Art Museum, given by Charles E. and Mary Merrill [2]
Notes:
[1] Charles Merrill purchased the painting from an unknown source in 1935. He and his wife gave the painting to the museum in 1955 [SLAM document files].
[2] Minutes of the Administrative Board of Control of the City Art Museum, May 5, 1955.