Georgia O’Keeffe
Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1
Sold for $44,405,000
Auction record for the artist
Auction record for any female artist
Georgia O’Keeffe’s ‘Jimson Weed’ sells for $44,4 million Sotheby’s has sold Georgia O’Keeffe’s ‘Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1’ for $44,405,000 – more than three times the previous world auction record for any female artist, and more than seven times the previous auction record for O’Keeffe.]]>
November 21, 2014, source: Sotheby’s
Sotheby’s auction went on to achieve a spectacular total of $75.4 million, well in excess of its $46 million high estimate, with ten works bringing prices over $1 million. Seven bidders competed for “Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1”,but it was a prolonged battle between two determined bidders that drove the price to this recordheight – nearly tripling the work’s high estimate of $15 million. The work is a well-known example ofO’Keeffe’s celebrated flower paintings, which in turn stand among the most recognizable images inboth art history and popular culture.
Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1 was one of three works by the artist that were on offer today fromthe Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico, sold to benefit its Acquisitions Fund.Each work exceeded its high estimate, with “On the Old Santa Fe Road” fetching the second-highestprice of the day at $5,093,000 (est. $2/3 million), and “Untitled (Skunk Cabbage)” selling for$941,000 (est. $500/750,000). This brings the group’s total to a strong $50.4 million.
Rob Kret, Director of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, said: “We are excited about the record-breakingresults of the Georgia O’Keeffe artworks. It is wonderful to see Georgia O’Keeffe’s iconic artworksreceive the recognition and valuation they deserve. This sale will provide funding to strengthen andrefine our collection, allowing us to represent the full breadth of Georgia O’Keeffe’s artisticaccomplishments.”
Elizabeth Goldberg, Head of Sotheby’s American Art Department, commented: “The outstandingresult for ‘Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1’ places Georgia O’Keeffe’s work in the top tier of 20thcentury artists on the market internationally, where it has always belonged. It was a particularprivilege to present works on behalf of such a wonderful institution as the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum.To have achieved this result just one year after Norman Rockwell’s ‘Saying Grace’ set a newbenchmark for this category at $46 million shows that there is an amazing appetite in today’smarket for gems of American Art.”
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Georgia O’Keeffe: “Spring” (from the ’50 great landscape paintings’ article by theartwolf.com
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