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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.
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Georgia O'Keeffe, Viking Press, New York, 1976, Black Cross New Mexico, p 64.