Black Door with Red

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

CultureAmerican

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)

Credit LineBequest of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.

Object number89.63

Collections

Modern and Contemporary

On View

Chrysler Museum of Art, Gallery 223

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 2017.16.1ProvenanceThe Downtown Gallery, New York; private collection, New York, 1963; [The Downtown Gallery, New York]; Edith G. Halpert, New York, 1964; Estate of Edith G. Halpert, 1970; Sotheby Parke Bernet Inc., New York, sale no. 3484, lot no. 43, March 15, 1973; [Andrew Crispo Gallery, New York]; Harry Spiro, New York, 1973; Coe Kerr Gallery, New York, 1975; Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., 1976; Bequest of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. to the Chrysler Museum of Art, 1989. Exhibition History"30th Anniversary Exhibition," The Downtown Gallery, New York, N.Y., October 4-29, 1955. (Exh. cat. no. 3) "31st Anniversary Exhibition," The Downtown Gallery, New York, N.Y., October 9 - November 3, 1956. "32nd Anniversary Exhibition," The Downtown Gallery, New York, N.Y., December 31, 1957 - January 25, 1958. "Two Centuries of American Painting," The Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio, October 4 - November 4, 1958. "Art USA '59," The New York Coliseum, New York, N.Y., April 3-19, 1959. "American Painting III," The Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio, April 1-28, 1964. "Group Show," The Downtown Gallery, New York, N.Y., November 15 - December 10, 1967. "Group Show," The Downtown Gallery, New York, N.Y., May 1968. "Contemporary American Painting and Sculpture," Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, Urbana, Ill., March 2 - April 6, 1969. "Three Hundred Years of American Art in the Chrysler Museum," Chrysler Museum at Norfolk, Va., March 1 - July 4, 1976. "The Common Wealth: American Masterpieces from Virginia Collections," Roanoke Museum of Fine Arts, Va., December 1, 1990 - February 3, 1991. "Georgia O'Keeffe," Kunsthaus, Zurich, Germany, October 23, 2003 - February 1, 2004. "Behind the Seen: The Chrysler's Hidden Museum," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., October 21, 2005 - February 19, 2006. "Georgia O'Keeffe: Nature and Abstraction," Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland, March 7 - May 13, 2007; Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia, October 5, 2007 - January 13, 2008 "Georgia O'Keeffe: Abstraction," Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, September 17, 2009 - January 7, 2010; Phillips Collection, February 6 - May 9, 2010; Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, May 28 - September 12, 2010. “Eloquent Objects: Georgia O’Keeffe and Still-Life Painting in New Mexico,” Indianapolis Museum of Art, October 30, 2014 – January 25, 2015; Tacoma Museum of Art, March 1 – June 7, 2015. "Collection Conversations: Georgia O'Keeffe: A Place of Her Own," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, October 21, 2015 - January 3, 2016.'' "Georgia O'Keeffe," Kunstforum Vienna, Vienna, Austria, December 7, 2016 - March 26, 2017; Art Gallery of Ontario, Ontario, Toronto, April 22 - July 30, 2017. "Georgia O'Keeffe: The Painter's Lens," Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain, April 20 – August 1, 2021; Centre Pompidou, Paris, France, September 8 – December 6, 2021; Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel, Switzerland, January 23 – May 22, 2022. Published References_Two Centuries of American Painting_, exh. cat., The Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio, 1958. (Exh. checklist) American Art Expositions, _Art USA '59: A Force, Language, Frontier_, exh. cat., New York Coliseum, New York, N.Y., 1959. Paul Cummings, _A Dictionary of Contemporary American Artists_ (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1966), 223. Dennis R. Anderson, _Three Hundred Years of American Art in the Chrysler Museum_, exh. cat., Norfolk, Va., 1975, 202. Joyce Szabo, "Collection Spotlight: Georgia O'Keeffe, Black Door with Red," _The Chrysler Museum Bulletin_ Vol. 17, no. 5 (June 1987). Maria Costantino, _Georgia O'Keeffe_ (Greenwich, Conn.: Brompton Books Corp., 1994), 146. Barbara Buhler Lynes, _Georgia O'Keeffe, Catalogue Raisonné_, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999), II: 794, no. 1271. Bice Curiger, _Georgia O'Keeffe_, exh. cat., Kunsthaus Zürich, Germany, 2003, 128-129, 194, no. 59. Lisa M. Messinger, "Georgia O'Keeffe, 1887-1986," _Timeline of Art History_, Metropolitan Museum of Art online resource, 2004: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/geok/hd_geok.htm. Martha N. Hagood and Jefferson C. Harrison, _American Art at the Chrysler Museum: Selected Paintings, Sculpture, and Drawings_ (Norfolk, Va.: Chrysler Museum of Art, 2005), 210-211, no. 130. Richard D. Marshall with texts by Yvonne Scott and Achille Bonito Oliva, _Georgia O'Keeffe: Nature and Abstraction_, exh. cat., Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland, 2007, 156 - 157. I Jeff Harrison, _Collecting with Vision: Treasures From the Chrysler Museum of Art_ (London: D. Giles Ltd., 2007), 77, fig. 88. Barbara Haskell, ed., _Georgia O'Keeffe: Abstraction_, exh. cat., Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.; Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, 2009, 156-157. Randall Griffin, _Georgia O'Keeffe_ (New York: Phaidon Press, 2014) 130. Charles C. Eldredge, _Eloquent Objects: Georgia O'Keeffe and Still-Life Art in New Mexico_ (International Arts, 2014) plate 64. Tanya Barson, ed., _Georgia O'Keeffe_ (London: Tate Publishing, 2016) 223, fig. 208. Rebecca Shaykin, _Edith Halpert, the Downtown Gallery, and the Rise of American Art_ (New Haven: Yale University Press in association with the Jewish Museum, New York, 2019) 187. Marta Ruiz del Árbol, _Georgia O'Keeffe_, exh. cat., Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, 2021, 218-219, cat. 85. Didier Ottinger, _Georgia O'Keeffe_, exh. cat., Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2021, 201. Samantha Friedman, _Georgia O'Keeffe: Abstraction Blue_ (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2022) 35, fig. 30.