Georgia O’Keeffe is well known for her paintings, but did you also know she created sculptures? O’Keeffe worked with Johnson Atelier Technical Institute of Sculpture to cast her swirling sculpture, Abstraction, in 1979-1980 as both 3-foot tall sculptures and 10-foot tall sculptures.
J. Seward Johnson Jr. founded the Johnson Atelier in 1974 as a casting and fabrication facility with an emphasis on education. As such, the institute had a robust apprenticeship program for hands-on learning as well as strong inclinations to experiment with new methods and techniques, working directly with sculptors to achieve their desired artistic outcome.
Two new donations to the archive, MS.65: Abstraction at Johnson Atelier and MS.67: Abstraction on Johnson Atelier Truck, include photographs of the unfinished sculptures at Johnson Atelier with the apprentices who worked on the sculptures as well as a photograph of O’Keeffe visiting the facility and a finished sculpture strapped in a truck bed for transportation. To learn more about these collections, view the finding aids for MS.65 and MS.67.
To explore O’Keeffe’s sculptures in the Museum’s art collection, see our Collections Online.
For additional information about O’Keeffe’s visit to Johnson Atelier, view the finding aid for a related collection, MS.15: Georgia O’Keeffe Abstraction Photographs, or see the images on our Collections Online.
0 Comments.