The Shell

1934

Georgia O'Keeffe

Associated Names
Georgia O'Keeffe

Artist, American, 1887 - 1986

Drawn with charcoal on parchment-white paper, the tightly coiled spiral of a shark eye shell nearly fills this rectangular drawing. The jagged opening of the shell is at the lower right, and the shell curves up and to our left, counterclockwise, into a tight spiral at the center. The wider planes of the outer layers are shaded silvery gray, and they darken to black at the center. A thin shadow is suggested by a soft rim of charcoal around the edges of the shell.
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Artwork overview

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(The Downtown Gallery, New York, N.Y.) Dorothy Braude Edinburg, Boston, 1955; gift to the National Gallery of Art, 1978.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1978

  • Master Drawings from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art and Promised Gifts, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1978, p. 120.

1985

  • "Georgia O'Keeffe: Works on Paper," Museum of Fine Arts, Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe, September 14 - November 17, 1985, no. 29

1986

  • Graphics Survey Exhibition, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., October 1986.

1999

  • "Georgia O'Keeffe: The Poetry of Things," The Phillips Collection, Washington, April 17 - July 18, 1999, as Shell.

2000

  • "O'Keeffe on Paper," National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., April 9 - July 9, 2000. Traveled to: The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, July 29 - October 29, 2000, p. 50-51, no. 45. (Exhibited at both venues)

2023

  • O'Keeffe and Moore, San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA, the Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, NM, and the Montreal Museum of Art, Montreal, Québec (only show in San Diego), May 13-August 27, 2023, cat no. 96, repro.

Bibliography

1999

  • Lynes, Barbara Buhler. Georgia O'Keeffe: Catalogue Raisonné. 2 vols. New Haven and London, 1999, no. 827.

2000

  • Fine, Ruth et al. O'Keeffe on Paper. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, 2000: no. 45.

2023

  • Feldman, Anita, editor. O'Keeffe and Moore. Exh. cat. San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA, the Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, NM, and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, Québec, 2023-2024: 134, cat. no. 96.

Watermarks

MBM (FRANCE) INGRES d'Arches

Wikidata ID

Q64571669

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