Georgia O'Keeffe Museum

Georgia O'Keeffe Museum
Established July 17, 1997
Location Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
Coordinates 35°41′20″N 105°56′28″W / 35.688961°N 105.94119°W
Type Single-artist art museum
Founder Anne Windfohr Marion
& John L. Marion
Director Robert Kret
President Roxanne Decyk
Website okeeffemuseum.org

The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum is dedicated to the artistic legacy of Georgia O'Keeffe, her life, American modernism, and public engagement. It opened on July 17, 1997, eleven years after the artist's death, and is located at 217 Johnson Street in Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States.[1]

History

The private, non-profit museum was founded in November 1995 by philanthropists Anne Windfohr Marion and John L. Marion, part-time residents of Santa Fe.[2] The museum building was designed by architect Richard Gluckman in association with Santa Fe firm Allegretti Architects. Gluckman's projects have included the gallery addition at the Whitney Museum of American Art's permanent collection in New York City and the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.[1]

The first director, Peter H. Hassrick, resigned eleven days after the museum opened in 1997, leaving museum president Jay Cantor temporarily in charge.[3] George King was director from 1998 to 2009.[4] Robert Kret, formerly director of the Hunter Museum of American Art, is the current director.[4]

The collection is the largest permanent collection of O'Keeffe's work in the world. Subjects range from the artist's innovative abstractions to her iconic large-format flower, skull, and landscape paintings to paintings of architectural forms and rocks, shells, and trees.[1] It includes gifts from the Burnett Foundation, the Georgia O'Keeffe Foundation, Anna Marie and Juan Hamilton, Gerald and Kathleen Peters, Anne W. Marion, The Stephane Janssen Trust, Anne W. Phillips, Clare and Eugene Thaw, and Emily Fisher Landau.[1] Initially, the collection was made of 140 O'Keeffe paintings, watercolors, pastels, and sculptures, but now includes nearly 1,200 objects.[4]

In May 2014, the museum opened a regional office in Dallas, Texas, led by Betty Brownlee.[5]

Exhibitions

Research Center

The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Research Center opened in July 2001. Its opening was celebrated with a three-day symposium, "Defining American Modernism, 1890-Present," which included a keynote address by Kirk Varnedoe, chief curator of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.[9]

It is housed in a Pueblo Revival-style building located at 135 Grant Street in Santa Fe. The building includes six offices, a library, archives, and meeting rooms. It was renovated by Gluckman Mayner Architects, New York.[1]

The research center is the only museum-related research facility in the world dedicated to the study of American modernism. Its collection includes O’Keeffe's library from her Ghost Ranch house, archives with numerous documents and correspondence pertaining to O’Keeffe and her contemporaries, and all of the personal property O’Keeffe owned at the time of her death in 1986, including artist materials and found objects, some of which are on view for scholars in glass-topped drawers.[9]

O'Keeffe's houses

In 2006, the museum became the steward of the historic Georgia O'Keeffe Home and Studio in Abiquiú, about 53 miles north of Santa Fe.

The museum also owns and maintains O'Keeffe's Ghost Ranch property, 20 minutes north of Abiquiú, which is not currently open to the public.[10]

Georgia O'Keeffe Foundation

The Georgia O'Keeffe Foundation was established in 1989 to help resolve a legal dispute between Juan Hamilton, O'Keeffe's assistant late in her life, and two of O'Keeffe's relatives over O'Keeffe's will. Based in Abiquiú, the Foundation renovated and maintained O'Keeffe's Abiquiú home and studio and worked with the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. to produce the 1999 catalogue raisonné of O'Keeffe's work.[11]

In early 2006, the Foundation announced that it would transfer all of its assets to the museum. The museum acquired 981 works by O’Keeffe, including 163 finished paintings, drawings, and sculptures; 669 sketches; and 149 photographs by O’Keeffe; as well as 1,770 photographs by other photographers documenting O’Keeffe, her houses, the subjects of her work, important events in her life, and her animals and friends.[12]

In popular culture

The museum and O'Keeffe's painting My Last Door were depicted in the episode "Abiquiu" of Breaking Bad.[13]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 "Museum History". OKeeffeMuseum.org. Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. Retrieved 2015-03-17.
  2. Jones, Kathryn (September 1999). "The Money of Color". Texas Monthly. Retrieved 2015-03-17.
  3. "Museum Director Resigns". The New York Times. July 30, 1997. Retrieved 2015-03-17.
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 Baker, Deborah (August 25, 2009). "O'Keeffe Museum Names New Director, Robert Kret". Albuquerque Journal. Retrieved 2015-03-17.
  5. Grobmeier, Danielle (July 19, 2014). "Santa Fe’s Georgia O’Keeffe Museum boasts Dallas office". The Dallas Morning News. Retrieved 2015-03-08.
  6. "More Past Exhibits". OKeeffeMuseum.org. Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. Retrieved 2015-03-17.
  7. "Past Exhibitions". OKeeffeMuseum.org. Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. Retrieved 2015-03-17.
  8. "Current Exhibition". OKeeffeMuseum.org. Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. Retrieved 2015-03-17.
  9. 9.0 9.1 Drohojowska-Philp, Hunter (July 1, 2001). "Their Chance to Redefine Modernism". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2015-03-08.
  10. "Her Houses". OKeeffeMuseum.org. Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. Retrieved 2015-03-17.
  11. Muchnic, Suzanne (July 13, 1997). "Home Is Where Her Art Is". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2015-03-08.
  12. "Permanent Collection". OKeeffeMuseum.org. Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. Retrieved 2015-03-17.
  13. Gajewski, Josh (May 30, 2010). "'Breaking Bad': Making that feeling last". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2015-03-08.

Further reading

External links