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Rust Red Hills
ArtistGeorgia O'Keeffe Edit this on Wikidata
Year1930
Dimensions16 in (41 cm) × 30 in (76 cm)
LocationBrauer Museum of Art
Accession No.62.02 Edit this on Wikidata
[edit on Wikidata]

Rust Red Hills is a 1930 landscape painting by American artist Georgia O'Keeffe. It depicts red and brown hills under a glowing red and yellow sky in northern New Mexico. At its initial exhibition in 1931, O'Keeffe indicated that it was one of her own best-loved paintings from that time period. The work is currently held by the Brauer Museum of Art, but in 2023, Valparaiso University, which runs the museum, announced they planned to sell the painting and two others to raise money to renovate the student dormitories. Art associations protested the pending sale as an ethical violation of the deaccessioning process.

Background

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Main article: Georgia O'Keeffe § New Mexico (1930s–1986)

Georgia O'Keeffe's relationship with New Mexico, which would later become part of her artistic identity, was ignited by a brief visit to the state with her sister in 1917 and deepened through her interactions with her friends in the 1920s, including Paul Strand, Rebecca Salsbury James, Paul Rosenfeld, and Dorothy Brett, all of whom shared vivid accounts of their experiences in the region, piquing O'Keeffe's curiosity. It was not until 1929 that she accepted an invitation from Mabel Dodge Luhan, a key figure in the Taos art colony.[1] For the next two summers, from 1929 to 1930, O'Keeffe painted throughout Taos, Alcade, and near Abiquiu.[2] The region's unique Southwestern Pueblo architecture, cultural motifs, and stark natural beauty unique to the geography of New Mexico found profound expression in her work. O'Keeffe's artistic output during this period includes her series on the San Francisco de Asís Mission Church (Ranchos Church, Taos, 1929; Ranchos Church, 1930), an exploration of local religious iconography and architectural form, and the iconography of the Penitentes (Black Cross, New Mexico, 1929), a devout religious group known for their distinctive crosses. She also found herself fascinated with the vast, rugged landscapes, turning her attention to hills and mountains (Black Mesa Landscape, New Mexico/Out Back of Marie's II, 1930; The Mountain, New Mexico, 1931). One painting from this series, Mountain at Bear Lake — Taos (1930), was gifted to the White House in 1997 and currently hangs in the White House Library as part of the permanent White House art collection.[3]

Development

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In 1930, Georgia O'Keeffe created 54 works, some of which were created in Maine and New York, though the majority were completed in New Mexico.[4] In April of that year, she continued her exploration of natural forms in Maine, expanding on her ongoing shell series first initiated in the 1920s (Shell and Old Shingle I, Shell and Old Shingle VII, 1926; Shell No. 2, 1928) and continuing sporadically into the 1930s (Clam Shell, 1930; Two Pink Shells/Pink Shell, 1937).[5] By May, O'Keeffe was painting in Lake George, New York (Lake George Early Moonrise, 1930).[4] During her second stay in New Mexico, from June to September, O'Keeffe completed Rust Red Hills, also known as Hills - Back of Mabel's, Taos, and the alternate title Toward Abiquiu, New Mexico.[6] This painting was one of approximately 19 works she completed in the summer of 1930, including both drawings and paintings, centered on the region's distinctive hills, mesas, and mountains in and around the towns of Taos, Alcade, and the areas surrounding Abiquiu.[4]

Description

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Curator Gregg Hertzlieb describes the painting as a depiction of hills near the town of Abiquiu,[7] but others think it depicts hills in the town of Taos.[2] Despite misnomers in several titles of related works (such as Near Abiquiu, New Mexico, 1930, which was made near Taos, not Abiquiu), partially caused by Stieglitz or others adding erroneous titles to the paintings before they were corrected by O'Keeffe, some of the works in this series may have been completed north of the Taos Pueblo, not in Abiquiu, depicting different views of Lobo Peak in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.[8]

Provenance

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General Mills purchased the work for their employee art collection in 1958 from the Downtown Gallery in Greenwich Village, New York City.[6] It was exhibited in Minneapolis and lent out to various museums.[9] The 1953 Percy H. Sloan endowment to Valparaiso University allowed Richard H. W. Brauer to purchase Rust Red Hills for the university art museum in 1962 for $5,700. He was able to authenticate the work directly with Georgia O'Keeffe. It was the second painting acquired by the new museum and was added to the permanent collection of what was later renamed the Brauer Museum of Art.[10]

Deaccessioning

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Main article: Valparaiso University deaccessioning controversy

In early 2023, Valparaiso University, led by president José Padilla, announced plans to sell three significant paintings, including Georgia O'Keeffe's Rust Red Hills, to fund dormitory renovations amidst financial struggles and declining enrollment. The proposal ignited protests from faculty, students and the larger art community. Valparaiso defended their plan, arguing that the artworks were not essential to its educational mission.[11] With the O'Keeffe painting alone worth between $10-15 million,[12] the proposed sale of all three paintings allows Valparaiso to raise the needed funds.[13] The deaccessioning was opposed by the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD), the American Alliance of Museums (AAM), the Association of Academic Museums and Galleries (AAMG), and the Association of Art Museum Curators (AAMC), citing ethical guidelines that generally restrict the use of deaccessioned art funds for purposes unrelated to art.[14] Richard H. W. Brauer filed a lawsuit, but he failed to establish standing and it was dismissed.[15] In June 2024, Padilla closed the Brauer Museum and laid off all staff.[12] With the museum closed, Rust Red Hills is currently secured in an off-site storage area as of September 2024.[15]

Exhibitions

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The painting was first exhibited at Alfred Stieglitz's An American Place gallery in 1931, where it was shown without a visible title, despite the title (Hills - Back of Mabel's, Taos) appearing on the stretcher bar on the verso. Here, O'Keeffe signed her initials within a star, a symbol she used to mark a selected painting she personally preferred as special and well liked.[7] Several decades later, the painting appeared in a 1953 exhibition tour at the Dallas Museum of Art and the Mayo Hill Galleries in Florida. It has been included in touring exhibitions in 1961, 1965, 1980, 2004, 2008, and in 2013, appearing throughout the United States,[16] Canada, Ireland, and Spain.[7] The painting also appeared at the Tate Modern in 2016 in the United Kingdom.[17]

  • Georgia O'Keeffe: Recent Paintings, New Mexico, New York, Etc. -- Etc. (1931)
  • An Exhibition of Paintings by Georgia O'Keeffe (1953)
  • American Business and the Arts (1961)
  • Georgia O'Keeffe (1965)
  • Georgia O'Keeffe An Exhibition of Oils, Watercolors and Drawings (1980)
  • Georgia O'Keeffe and New Mexico: A Sense of Place (2004)
  • Georgia O'Keeffe and Ansel Adams (2008)
  • Georgia O'Keeffe in New Mexico: Architecture, Katsinam, and the Land (2013)
  • Georgia O'Keeffe (2016)

References

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  1. ^ Schwendener, Martha (January 6, 2013). "A Review of 'Georgia O'Keeffe in New Mexico,' at the Montclair Art Museum". The New York Times. Retrieved October 27, 2024.
    • Robinson, Roxana (1999)[1989]. Georgia O'Keeffe: A Life. Hanover: University Press of New England. ISBN 9780874519068. OCLC 39732936.
  2. ^ a b Drohojowska-Philp, Hunter (2005)[2004]. Full Bloom: The Art and Life of Georgia O'Keeffe. New York: W. W. Norton. p. 324. ISBN 9780393343090. OCLC 1369657418.
  3. ^ Fling, Sarah (2024). "Diversity in White House Art: Georgia O'Keeffe". The White House Historical Association. Retrieved October 27, 2024.
  4. ^ a b c "Georgia O'Keeffe's Artistic Career". Data visualization. Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. October 25, 2024.
  5. ^ Messinger, Lisa Mintz (2001). Georgia O'Keeffe. London: Thames & Hudson. pp. 104-121. ISBN 0500203407. OCLC 1057621726.
  6. ^ a b "Rust Red Hills" Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture, Smithsonian American Art Museum.
  7. ^ a b c Hertzlieb, Gregg (Fall/Winter 2009-2010). "Georgia O'Keeffe: Rust Red Hills". Valparaiso Poetry Review. XI (1). Retrieved October 27, 2024.
  8. ^ Messinger, Lis. M. (Ed.). (2011). Stieglitz and his Artists: Matisse to O'Keeffe. The Alfred Stieglitz Collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 202. ISBN 9781588394330. OCLC 711045516.
  9. ^ San Francisco Museum of Art. (1961). American Business and the Arts. An exhibition presented on the occasion of the International Industrial Conference. Sept. 14 through Oct. 15, 1961. OCLC 744713717.
  10. ^ Grant, Daniel (June 28, 2024). "Valparaiso University shuts down Brauer Museum amid deaccessioning scandal". The Art Newspaper. Retrieved October 26, 2024.
  11. ^ Jones, Shelly (February 15, 2023). "Valparaiso University students protest plan to sell three paintings, including a Georgia O'Keeffe". Post-Tribune. Retrieved October 29, 2024.
  12. ^ a b Lavalley, Amy (June 21, 2024). "Valparaiso University cuts 14 staff, including museum director, in restructuring effort". Post-Tribune. Retrieved October 29, 2024.
  13. ^ Richardson, Kalia (March 10, 2023). "Its Georgia O'Keeffe Is Worth Millions. And Its Dorms Need Updating". The New York Times. Retrieved October 23, 2024.
  14. ^ Boucher, Brian (September 4, 2024). "A Court Approves Valparaiso University’s Controversial Plan to Sell Paintings From Brauer Museum Collection". Artnet. Retrieved October 30, 2024.
  15. ^ a b Cui, Liya (February 23, 2024). "Indiana Court Allows Valparaiso University to Sell O'Keeffe Painting". U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved October 29, 2024.
  16. ^ O'Keeffe, Georgia. (1960-1964). Rust Red Hills. Exhibitions. Collections Online. Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. Retrieved October 24, 2024.
  17. ^ "Georgia O'Keeffe". 6 July - 30 October 2016. Tate Modern. Retrieved October 25, 2024.
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