Black Door with Red

Artist Georgia O'Keeffe (American, 1887-1986)

Date1954

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions48 × 84 in. (121.9 × 213.4 cm)
Overall, Frame: 50 × 86 × 2 1/4 in. (127 × 218.4 × 5.7 cm)

ClassificationsModern art

Credit LineBequest of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.

Object number89.63

Terms

New Mexico
Door
Abstract
patios
Black
Red
Pink
Yellow
Abstract
New Mexico

Collections

Modern and Contemporary

On View

On view

DescriptionBlack Door with Red, an oil on canvas painting, depicts the patio of the artist's home in Abiquiu, New Mexico. Very abstracted, this work focuses on the door: it is depicted as a simple black rectangle, stepping stones are rendered as a series of small pink squares, and the wall is a vibrant red. The sky and ground are illustrated with yellow bands, at top and bottom.

Label TextGeorgia O’Keeffe American, 1887–1986 Black Door with Red, 1954 Oil on canvas Nature, pattern, abstraction, and imagination meet in Georgia O’Keeffe’s Black Door with Red. Between 1946 and 1960, she painted more than 20 images of a patio wall at her adobe house in Abiquiú, New Mexico. With each new version of this simple composition, the artist varied the framing, perspective, and color. Here, she reduced the visual elements to a strip of sky, a row of paving stones, and a single dark door. Most dramatically, O’Keeffe drenched the scene with deep yellows and reds instead of the actual beige of the adobe. Do these colors bring to mind the desert sun and heat, or does the black door suggest a secret, personal meaning for the artist? Bequest of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 89.63 *includes image* Don Worth, American, 1924-2009 Georgia O'Keeffe, New Mexico, 1958 Gelatin silver print (photograph) Museum purchase 2017.16.1