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Graphic: Bank of America presents Masterpiece Moment
Video: Exterior and interior shots of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
On-screen text: Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe
Video: The painting Spring, 1948, by Georgia O’Keeffe
On-screen text: Georgia O’Keeffe (American, 1887–1986), Spring, 1948, Oil on canvas, 48 1/4 x 84 1/3 in.
Video: Cody Hartley, Director of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, standing in front of the painting Spring, 1948, by Georgia O’Keeffe
On-screen text: Cody Hartley, Director, Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
Audio—[Cody Hartley]: Hello, I’m Cody Hartley, Director of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Welcome to Bank of America’s Masterpiece Moment. Today, I’d like to talk about Spring by Georgia O’Keeffe and tell you why it is truly a masterpiece.
Video: Exterior and interior shots of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
Audio: When the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum first opened its doors in 1997…
Video: A black-and-white photograph of Georgia O’Keeffe at home, 1977
Audio: …eleven years after the artist’s death…
Video: Interior and exterior shots of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
Audio: …there were 94 works by O’Keeffe in the collection. The museum incorporates sites in Santa Fe…
Video: The photographs Ghost Ranch, 1952, by George Daniell and Abiquiú House, Studio Door, c. 1960, by Georgia O’Keeffe
Audio: …and O’Keefe’s famed homes at Ghost Ranch and in Abiquiú, New Mexico.
Video: The photographs Georgia O’Keeffe, c. 1921, by Alfred Stieglitz and Georgia O’Keeffe’s Studio at the Ghost Ranch, New Mexico, 1962, by Todd Webb
Audio: It was founded not only to steward the legacy of its legendary namesake but also to provide education to future generations of artists…
Video: Exterior and interior shots of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, including a display of her tools and other painting materials, followed by a 1965 photograph of O’Keeffe in her studio
Audio: …and to serve the greater community. Its collections include O’Keeffe’s artworks, tools and personal effects and an extensive archive.
Video: Cody Hartley standing in front of Spring, 1948, by Georgia O’Keeffe, followed by close-up details of the painting
Audio: This painting, Spring, is a gift from the museum’s founder, Anne Marion, and has pride of place in the museum’s galleries. At four feet by seven feet, this oil on canvas is a masterpiece that the artist herself recognized as something special.
Video: Black-and-white footage of O’Keeffe working in her studio
Audio: Georgia O’Keefe was one of the most important artists in the establishment of American Modernism in the twentieth century.
Video: A sepia-toned photograph of Francis and Ida O’Keeffe’s house in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, followed by a photograph of Georgia O’Keeffe as an adolescent
Audio: A native of Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, O’Keeffe was an accomplished artist by age 15…
Video: An archival photograph of the Art Institute of Chicago, Main Building, c. 1910
Audio: …and went on to study at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Video: An archival photograph of the Art Students League building
Audio: She then went to New York, where she studied realist painting at the Art Students League.
Video: Cody Hartley standing in front of Spring, 1948, by Georgia O’Keeffe
Audio: She developed a unique style that focused on interpreting her subjects…
Video: The paintings Flower Abstraction, 1924, and Abstraction White Rose, 1927, by Georgia O’Keeffe
Audio: …which would later develop into semi-abstract, often provocative depictions of landscapes and still-life subjects—especially flowers.
Video: The photographs Self-Portrait, Freienwalde a. O., 1886, by Alfred Stieglitz and Alfred Stieglitz, 1917, by Paul Strand
Audio: In New York, she met the pioneering photographer and modern art dealer Alfred Stieglitz…
Video: The photograph Georgia O’Keeffe Exhibition at 291, Interior Gallery View, 1917, by Alfred Stieglitz
Audio: …who held an exhibition of her paintings in 1917…
Video: The photograph Georgia O’Keeffe, 1918–19, by Alfred Stieglitz
Audio: …and continued to show her work, as she became one of the most talked-about artists in America.
Video: The photograph The City of Ambition, 1910, by Alfred Stieglitz, followed by a photograph of Alfred Stieglitz and Georgia O’Keeffe kissing at Lake George, c. 1929
Audio: In 1918, O’Keeffe permanently moved to New York, and, in 1924, she and Stieglitz were married.
Video: Cody Hartley standing in front of Spring, 1948, by Georgia O’Keeffe
Audio: The decade following O’Keeffe’s move was remarkably productive, cementing not only her reputation but also her style…
Video: The painting Storm Cloud, Lake George, 1923, by Georgia O’Keeffe, followed by the photograph House and Trees, Lake George, 1932, by Alfred Stieglitz
Audio: …whether as an observer of nature at the Stieglitz family summerhouse in Lake George, New York…
Video: The painting East River from the Shelton Hotel, 1928, by Georgia O’Keeffe
Audio: …or as a painter of the modern city in Manhattan.
Video: The paintings The Mountain, New Mexico, 1931, and Red Hills with Flowers, 1937, by Georgia O’Keeffe
Audio: These familiar themes would be shaken up in 1929, when O’Keeffe spent her first summer in New Mexico—not in Santa Fe, but in nearby Taos. Flowers were in short supply in the arid high desert…
Video: Black-and-white footage of O’Keeffe outside an adobe building and a pile of bleached cows’ skulls and bones
Audio: …but new subjects took their place, including the bleached bones that O’Keeffe collected on her hikes.
Video: The paintings New York Street with Moon, 1925; Ranchos Church, 1930; and Black Cross with Stars and Blue, c. 1929, by Georgia O’Keeffe
Audio: In place of skyscrapers and streetlamps, O’Keeffe painted mud-brick adobe, as well as the crosses erected in the mountain foothills by a lay Catholic confraternity—the Penitentes.
Video: The photograph Georgia O’Keeffe–After Return from New Mexico, 1929, by Alfred Stieglitz, followed by the paintings Cow’s Skull with Calico Roses, 1931; Pedernal, 1941–42, by Georgia O’Keeffe; and a photograph of the Cerro Pedernal landscape
Audio: She returned for the summers thereafter and began exhibiting her New Mexican subjects back in New York. These included a favorite landscape motif: the view of the flat-topped Cerro Pedernal, a flint mountain…
Video: The photograph Georgia O’Keeffe on Ghost Ranch Portal, c. 1964, by Todd Webb
Audio: …from the patio of her Ghost Ranch home.
Video: Two photographs of Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz at Lake George, c. 1938, by Josephine B. Marks
Audio: In the summer of 1946, Stieglitz suffered a fatal stroke, and O’Keeffe hastened back to New York. The task of settling Stieglitz’s estate occupied her for almost three years, leaving time for little else.
Video: Black-and-white footage of Georgia O’Keeffe at home in New Mexico, c. 1950
Audio: This was a time of profound change for the artist.
Video: The photograph Georgia O’Keeffe in Abiquiú, New Mexico by Carl Van Vechten
Audio: She did not return to New Mexico until 1948, when she set to work…
Video: The painting Spring, 1948, by Georgia O’Keeffe
Audio: …on Spring—her largest work to date. It is the mountain, the Pedernal, which forms the background to the present picture—the first that O’Keeffe would paint in New Mexico after Stieglitz’s death. Indeed, the work’s title, Spring, the season of rebirth, and the white primroses, a traditional symbol of sadness and mourning, may refer to the artist’s grief…
Video: The photograph Georgia O’Keeffe, 1953 by Laura Gilpin
Audio: …and the new beginning that awaited O’Keeffe in New Mexico.
Video: The painting Spring, 1948, by Georgia O’Keeffe
Audio: Together with the mountain and flowers, two bones complete the painting’s composition: an antler in the foreground; and the floating form of a large vertebra above.
Video: A close-up shot of a display case that holds an antler and a large vertebra followed by a wide shot of it in the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum gallery where Spring, 1948, hangs on the wall next to it
Audio: O’Keeffe’s models for these, a deer antler and a cow or bison vertebra, are also preserved in the museum’s collection.
Video: The paintings Summer Days, 1936; Pelvis with Pedernal, 1943; Ram’s Head, Blue Morning Glory, 1938; and Flying Backbone, 1944, by Georgia O’Keeffe
Audio: O’Keeffe rejected facile interpretations of her paintings, including the idea that the bones and skulls she depicted represented death. Notwithstanding their traditional use, to symbolize mortality, O’Keeffe asserted that the bleached bones in her paintings were vigorous and vital natural forms. The same cow or bison vertebra from her collection served as a source for numerous paintings.
Video: Cody Hartley standing in front of Spring, 1948, by Georgia O’Keeffe
Audio: Instead of selling Spring right away in 1948, O’Keeffe decided to keep it and placed it temporarily in storage in her home.
Video: Photographs of a room in Georgia O’Keeffe’s home
Audio: Unfortunately, the roof above the room where it was placed leaked…
Video: A close-up of the painting Spring, 1948, by Georgia O’Keeffe that shows stains on it
Audio: …and water left dark stains on the paint surface.
Video: A black-and-white photograph of conservator Caroline Keck
Audio: These stains were cleaned by O’Keeffe’s personal conservator, Caroline Keck…
Video: A close-up of the painting Spring, 1948, by Georgia O’Keeffe that shows stains on it
Audio: …but after many years, these marks were visible once again.
Video: Images and footage of conservators working on Spring, 1948, in a conservation studio, interspersed with close-ups of the painting
Audio: Thanks to the generous support of the Bank of America Art Conservation Project, this painting has recently undergone months of treatment by conservators at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum to repair past damage and remediate several earlier attempts at conservation. In 2021, conservators found that old damage had caused the paint to peel—while some paint was missing altogether—and spent many hundreds of hours gently reattaching peeling paint and filling in paint losses.
Video: The painting Spring, 1948, by Georgia O’Keeffe hanging on a gallery wall
Audio: Now that their work is done, Spring looks much the way it did when it first left O’Keeffe’s studio.
Video: Cody Hartley standing in front of Spring, 1948, by Georgia O’Keeffe
Audio: I want to thank you for taking the time to watch today and learn more about Spring by Georgia O’Keeffe. I encourage you to join the conversation and discuss the work with family and friends. And please visit the Bank of America Masterpiece Moment website to sign up for reminders and ensure that you never miss a moment!
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On-screen text:
Title treatment art:
Henry Ossawa Tanner (American, 1859–1937)
The Arch, 1919 (detail)
Oil on canvas
Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Alfred W. Jenkins, 32.10 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 32.10_SL1.jpg)
Georgia O’Keeffe (American, 1887–1986)
© 2022 The Georgia O’Keeffe Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Spring, 1948
Oil on canvas
48 1/4” x 84 1/3” (122.5 x 214 cm)
Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, gift of the Burnett Foundation
Image: © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
[1997.6.28]
Abiquiú House, Studio Door, c. 1960
Gelatin silver print
4 1/2” x 6 1/4” (11.4 x 15.9 cm)
Gift of The Georgia O’Keeffe Foundation
Image: © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
[2006.6.1395]
Flower Abstraction, 1924
Oil on canvas
Overall: 48 1/8” x 30” (122.2 x 76.2 cm)
Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, 50th Anniversary gift of Sandra Payson. Inv. N.: 85.47
Digital image © Whitney Museum of American Art / Licensed by Scala / Art Resource, NY
Abstraction White Rose, 1927
Oil on canvas
36” x 30” (91.4 x 76.2 cm)
Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, gift of the Burnett Foundation and The Georgia O’Keeffe
Foundation
Image: © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
[1997.4.2]
Storm Cloud, Lake George, 1923
Oil on canvas
18” x 30 1/8” (45.7 x 76.5 cm)
Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
Gift of The Burnett Foundation. 2007.1.18.
Image: © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
[2007.1.18]
East River from the Shelton Hotel, 1928
Oil on canvas
12” x 32” (30.5 x 81.3 cm)
Alfred Stieglitz Collection, Bequest of Georgia O’Keeffe, 1986 (1987.377.3)
Image: © The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image source: Art Resource, NY
The Mountain, New Mexico, 1931
Oil on canvas
Overall: 30 1/16” x 36 1/8” (76.4 x 91.8 cm)
Purchase. Inv. N.: 32.14
Digital image © Whitney Museum of American Art / Licensed by Scala / Art Resource, NY
Red Hills with Flowers, 1937
Oil on canvas
20” x 25” (50.8 x 63.5 cm)
Bequest of Hortense Henry Prosser, 1992.649
The Art Institute of Chicago / Art Resource, NY
New York Street with Moon, 1925
Oil on canvas
48” x 30 3/8” (122 x 77 cm)
Inv. N.: CTB.1981.76. Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza / Scala / Art Resource, NY
Ranchos Church, 1930–31
Oil on canvas
24” x 36” (61 x 91.4 cm)
Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas
Black Cross with Stars and Blue, c. 1929
Oil on canvas
40” x 30” (101.6 x 76.2 cm)
Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Museum Purchase
Image: © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
[2021.4.1]
Cow’s Skull with Calico Roses, 1931
Oil on canvas
36” x 24” (91.4 x 61 cm)
Alfred Stieglitz Collection, gift of Georgia O’Keeffe (1947.712)
© The Art Institute of Chicago
The Art Institute of Chicago / Art Resource, NY
Pedernal, 1941–42
Oil on canvas
20 1/8” x 30 1/4” (51.1 x 76.8 cm)
Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
Gift of The Burnett Foundation and The Georgia O’Keeffe Foundation
Image: © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
[2006.5.172]
Summer Days, 1936
Oil on canvas
Overall: 36 1/8” x 30 1/8” (91.8 x 76.5 cm)
Gift of Calvin Klein. Inv. N.: 94.171
Digital image © Whitney Museum of American Art / Licensed by Scala / Art Resource, NY
Pelvis with Pedernal, 1943
Oil on canvas
16” x 22” (40.6 x 55.9 cm)
Museum Purchase (50.19)
Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute / Art Resource, NY
Ram’s Head, Blue Morning Glory, 1938
Oil on canvas
20” x 30” (50.8 x 76.2 cm)
Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. Gift of The Burnett Foundation.
Image: © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
[2007.1.24]
Flying Backbone, 1944
Oil on canvas
11” x 25 1/4” (27.9 x 64.2 cm)
Alfred Stieglitz Collection, Co-owned by Fisk University, Nashville, Tennessee, and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas
Photography by Edward C. Robison III
Live conservation of Georgia O’Keeffe’s Spring, 1948
Conservation work completed by Dale Kronkright, Head of Conservation and Preservation at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
Courtesy of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum.
Georgia O’Keeffe at home, 1977
Basil Langton / Science Source
George Daniell (American, 1911–2002)
Ghost Ranch, 1952
Gelatin silver print
Gift of The Georgia O’Keeffe Foundation (2006.6.1476)
Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe / Art Resource, NY
© George Daniell Estate
Alfred Stieglitz (American, 1864–1946)
Georgia O’Keeffe, c. 1921
Gelatin silver print
Museum Purchase (2014.3.79)
Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe / Art Resource, NY
Self-Portrait, Freienwalde a. O., 1886
Platinum print
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Alfred Stieglitz Collection
Georgia O’Keeffe Exhibition at 291, Interior Gallery View, 1917
Gelatin silver print
Gift of The Georgia O’Keeffe Foundation (2006.6.1483b)
Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe / Art Resource, NY
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1918–19
Gelatin silver print
Museum Purchase
The City of Ambition, 1910
Gelatin silver print
Alfred Stieglitz Collection. Gift of Georgia O’Keeffe.
Digital Image © The Museum of Modern Art / Licensed by SCALA / Art Resource, NY
House and Trees, Lake George, 1932
Gelatin silver print
Gift of The Georgia O’Keeffe Foundation (2003.1.22)
Image: © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe / Art Resource, NY
Georgia O’Keeffe–After Return from New Mexico, 1929
Gelatin silver print
Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. Gift of The Georgia O’Keeffe Foundation.
Todd Webb (American, 1905–2000)
© Todd Webb Archive
Georgia O’Keeffe’s Studio at the Ghost Ranch, New Mexico, 1962 (detail)
Gelatin silver print
Museum Purchase (1985.38.54)
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. / Art Resource, NY
Georgia O’Keeffe on Ghost Ranch Portal, c. 1964 (detail)
Gelatin silver print
Gift of The Georgia O’Keeffe Foundation (2006.6.1047)
Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe / Art Resource, NY
Painting materials as displayed at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe
Photo: Scotwriter21, Wikimedia Commons
Balthazar Korab (American, b. Hungary, 1926–2013)
Georgia O’Keeffe in Abiquiú Studio, 1965
Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
Francis and Ida O’Keeffe’s house in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, undated
Claudia O’Keeffe Papers, MS.3 (RC.1999.1.147)
Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe / Art Resource, NY
Georgia O’Keeffe school photographs, c. 1903–04
Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
Art Institute of Chicago, Main Building, c. 1910
Chicago Tribune Historical Photo
George P. Hall and Son, The Architectural League’s Fine Arts Building, now called the Art Students League of New York, located at 215 West 57th Street
The Museum of the City of New York / Art Resource, NY
Paul Strand (American, 1890–1976)
Alfred Stieglitz, 1917
Gelatin silver print
Museum Purchase (2014.3.84)
Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe / Art Resource, NY
© Paul Strand Archive / Aperture Foundation
Carl Van Vechten (American, 1880–1964)
Portrait of Georgia O’Keeffe, New York, June 6, 1936
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Carl Van Vechten Collection [reproduction number: LC-USZ62-54231]
Georgia O’Keeffe in Abiquiú, New Mexico, August 15, 1960
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Carl Van Vechten Collection [reproduction number: LC-USZ62-103712 DLC]
Alfred Stieglitz and Georgia O’Keeffe, kissing at Lake George, c. 1929
Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
New Mexico, c. 1950, Georgia O’Keeffe at home and in her studio (film clip)
Film Images / Bridgeman Images
Unknown photographer
Ghost Ranch patio and Pedernal, undated
Gelatin silver print
Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. Museum Purchase. [2014.3.269]
Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
Josephine B. Marks
Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz at Lake George, c. 1938
Georgia O’Keeffe Photographs, MS.37 (204.3.210)
Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe / Art Resource, NY
Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz at Lake George, c. 1938
Georgia O’Keeffe Photographs, MS.37 (2014.3.211)
Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe / Art Resource, NY
Laura Gilpin (American, 1891–1979)
Georgia O’Keeffe, 1953
Gelatin silver print
Museum Purchase (2014.3.34)
Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe / Art Resource, NY
© 1979 Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas
Salita room, Abiquiú. Krysta Jabczenski.
Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe
© Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
Salita room, Abiquiú. Krysta Jabczenski.
Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe
© Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
Brooklyn Museum Archives, Photograph collection. People. Staff: Caroline Keck and Sheldon Keck, undated
Brooklyn Museum Archives
“Take the “A” Train”
Written by Billy Strayhorn
Performed by Oscar Peterson
Courtesy of Verve Records under license from Universal Music Enterprises
© 2022 Bank of America Corporation.
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