2007 - The Year of O'Keeffe
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On July 17, 1997, Santa Fe, New Mexico was on the lips and in the consciousness of art appreciators around the world. On that day, the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum opened in Santa Fe and would become:
- the first museum in America dedicated to a woman artist of international stature
- the most visited art museum and the most visited tourist attraction in New Mexico, welcoming more than 1.8 million visitors
- the largest single repository of O’Keeffe’s work in the world
- the youngest museum ever to receive Accreditation from the American Association of Museums.
Equally impressive is the fact that in the past decade, the Museum’s collection has grown from 116 works to 2992, including 981 new O’Keeffe artworks, many of which have never been publicly exhibited, as well as 1770 works by other artists. |
Georgia O’Keeffe "Black Hollyhock Blue Larkspur"
1930
Oil on Canvas
30 1/8" x 40"
© Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
Extended loan, private collection |
The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum’s commitment to education is stunning and successful. Its Art and Leadership Program for Girls and Boys has been nationally recognized for its programs which allow middle-school children from all income levels and ethnicities to exchange outlooks and find support for their interest in art. And, furthering its commitment to young people, the Museum gives free access to more than 15,000 students from across the state each year. In 2001, the Museum opened a Research Center that is the only one in the world focusing on American Modernism. The Center gives six scholarships each year and makes its unique archives accessible to researchers worldwide.
Since its founding by philanthropists Anne W. and John L. Marion, the Museum has presented exhibitions that offer new insights into O’Keeffe’s works and more: important exhibitions have been presented that showcase relationships between O’Keeffe’s work and that of her illustrious contemporaries (such as Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, John Marin, Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand) as well as exhibitions which define O’Keeffe’s accomplishments within the context of specific developments in American Modernism. By offering exquisite context for the exhibitions, the Museum brings new relevance to all of the works shown.
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The Tenth Anniversary of this enormous gift to New Mexico and to the art world is cause for celebration, indeed! Throughout 2007, the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum will celebrate the achievements of the Museum in its first decade and will build on its accomplishments with community events and a full exhibition schedule.
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Two concurrent exhibitions will be on display from May 25 through September 9, 2007:
Georgia O’Keeffe: Circling Around Abstraction includes 60 works from various collections and explores O’Keeffe’s consistent use of circular forms during the more than seven decades she was active as an artist.
A Day with Georgia O’Keeffe: Photographs by Tony Vaccaro includes 27 photographs of O’Keeffe made in 1960. Vaccaro’s images of the artist are unusual in that they capture her enjoying favorite activities such as gardening, playing with her dogs and listening to music.
Beginning September 21, 2007 is an exhibit that Ms. O’Keeffe probably would have loved: Georgia O’Keeffe and the Women of the Stieglitz Circle, an exhibit which reveals for the first time how various women artists in the Stieglitz circle paved the way for O’Keeffe’s emergence in 1915.
For a complete 10th Anniversary schedule, visit www.okeeffemuseum.org
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Originally appeared in The Wingspread Collector’s Guide to Santa Fe, Taos & Albuquerque – Vol 21 |
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