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| Georgia O'Keeffe, Black Cross, New Mexico,1929, Art Institute of Chicago |
I saw the crosses so often -- and often in unexpected places -- like a thin dark veil of the Catholic Church spread over the New Mexico landscape. -- Georgia O'Keeffe
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Georgia O'Keeffe painted a Penitente Cross. Cross is at the end of the Stations of the Cross near Taos, NM, photo Steve Collins
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One evening when I was living in Taos we walked back of the morada toward a cross in the hills. I was told that it was a Penitente cross . . . The cross was large enough to crucify a man . . . It was in the late light and the cross stood out -- dark against the evening sky. .
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| Black Cross with Stars and Blue, 1929, Georgia O'Keeffe, private collection |
I painted the cross against the mountain although I never saw it that way. I painted it with a red sky and I painted it with a blue sky and stars.
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| Georgia O'Keeffe painted Black Crosses from a morada with cross near Taos, NM, photo Steve Collins |
For me, painting the crosses was a way of painting the country.
-- Georgia O'KeeffeI recently passed through Taos on my way home to Colorado and was inspired by what Georgia O'Keeffe saw and what she painted during her first stay in Taos in 1929. I'll discuss her Ranchos de Taos Church paintings next.
Hope you enjoyed this entry. Please drop me a comment in the box below.
Georgia O'Keeffe, Viking Press, New York, 1976, Black Cross New Mexico, p 64.
Just recently saw the image of the painting "Blue Cross with Stars and Blue". Having been looking at O' Keeffe paintings for years and always amazed when I see one I haven't before. She is able to create such drama with the scenes she painted. Thanks for posting.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment Anonymous. Like you, I think I have seen most of her work and now and then I run across something new. I imagine there is quite a bit of her work in private collections we never see. Now and then one of the major auction houses will post a photo of a painting of O'Keeffe's that is up for auction and then we get to see something that has been privately held for years. Glad you enjoyed the post.
DeleteYou're welcome. A nice surprise to see your blog on "Georgia". Just recently came across several chidren's books about her. One was about her visit to Hawaii. It was very nicely illustrated. Would have given my name but I'm not too familiar with the profile choices.
DeleteYou are right to connect Black Cross with Stars and Blue with the cross at the morada out behind Mabel Dodge's house. Same with the one with the red sky, which is owned by Gerald Peters. Gray Cross with Blue, also 1929, at The Albuquerque Museum, is of a cross owned by the morada on the south end of Alcalde, the village between Verlarde and Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo. Most likely she saw it while visiting Hamlin and Marie Garland, at their H & M Ranch, just south of Alcalde. (She stayed with them for a while in the following summer, 1930.) Black Cross, New Mexico, at the Art Institute of Chicago, was based on a cross near Cameron, Az (and the landscape is unmistakably similar to the bare hills in that area and west of Tuba City); she acknowledges this location (Cameron) in the text of her big 1976 publication, although sometime before that time she had changed the title, so it appears in the caption as Black Cross, New Mexico. Stieglitz' original typewritten exhibition list for her 1930 show at An American Place lists the title of that painting as Black Cross, Arizona. The crosses at Alcalde and Taos still exist. I have looked in the area north of Cameron, but the place that is the most likely spot has a large cross which, while similar, is a replacement for an earlier one, so it's not the cross that was there when she saw it in 1929. On that road trip they were most likely headed up to Lee's Ferry, as the bridge over the Colorado, which replaced the ferry,opened in 1929.
DeleteLike the other anonymous poster, I too would have given a name, but the profile choices don't seem to allow it. Jim Moore, Albuquerque.
ReplyDeleteI recognized Black Cross immediately when it was used for the cover of DH Lawrence’s The Man Who Died.
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