The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 30, 2023

Cliffs Beyond Abiquiu, Dry Waterfall

1943

Georgia O'Keeffe

(American, 1887–1986)

America, 20th century

Oil on canvas

Framed: 79.5 x 44 x 5.1 cm (31 5/16 x 17 5/16 x 2 in.); Unframed: 76.2 x 40.6 cm (30 x 16 in.)

Bequest of Georgia O'Keeffe 1987.141

© Georgia O'Keeffe Museum / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

O’Keeffe preferred certain frame styles, including this example nicknamed “clamshell” due to its shape.

Description

Weary from social duties in Manhattan that distracted her from making art, O’Keeffe spent increasing time in rural New Mexico near the village of Abiquiu, eventually moving there permanently. As evidenced here, the multicolored cliffs near her home at Ghost Ranch provided subject matter for her painting. Upon her death, the artist bequeathed this canvas—along with four others—to the Cleveland Museum of Art, an early supporter of her work.

Inscriptions

Inscription

Stretcher: "No. 3" (unidentified hand, graphite) Backing: 1. "Cliffs beyond Abiquiu -- New Mexico -- / 1943 / by Georgia O'Keeffe." (AS, AAP3, black ink) 2. "No. 14" Cliffs Beyond Abiquiu -- Dry Waterfall (AAP5) 3. "-- 1943" (AAP5, black ink) 4. "Box 43 on 6" (DB, black ink)

Provenance
1986-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
1943-1986
Collection of the artist, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Citations
O'Keeffe, Georgia. Georgia O'Keeffe: A Studio Book. New York: Viking Press, 1976. Reproduced: fig. 93
Chong, Alan. European & American Painting in the Cleveland Museum of Art: A Summary Catalogue. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1993. Reproduced: p. 171
O'Keeffe, Georgia, John Loengard, and Lothar Schirmer. Georgia O'Keeffe/John Loengard: Paintings & Photographs: a Visit to Abiquiu and Ghost Ranch. München: Schirmer Mosel, 2006. Reproduced: fig. 3
Georgia O'Keefe, Last Will and Testament, Aug. 22, 1979, in CMA curatorial file.
Weisman, Celia. "O'Keeffe's Art: Sacred Symbols and Spiritual Quest." Women's Art Journal 3 no. 2 (Fall 1982/Winter 1983). Mentioned: p. 11-12
"Art Museum Gets O'Keeffe Paintings." The Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 22, 1986.
Cleveland Museum of Art. "The Year in Review for 1987." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 75, no. 2 (1987). Mentioned: p. 67; Reproduced: p. 61
Culllinan, Helen. "Georgia On Our Minds; O'Keeffe Legacy: 5 Glowing New Oils at Museum." The Cleveland Plain Dealer, September 5, 1987.
Wellish, Marjorie. "House Beautiful." In The Faraway Nearby: Georgia O'Keeffe as Icon, edited by Christopher Merrill and Ellen Bradbury, 127-133. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Pub. co., 1992. Mentioned: p. 129
Merrill, Christopher, Ellen Bradbury, James Kraft, Anna Chave, Lisa Mintz Messinger, MaLin Wilson-Powell, Sharyn Rohlfsen Udall, Jennifer Saville, and Barbara Buhler Lynes. From the Faraway Nearby: Georgia O'Keeffe As Icon. 1992. Mentioned: p. 25; Reproduced: p. 25
Eldredge, Charles. Georgia O'Keeffe: American and Modern. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993. Reproduced: fig. 69
Benke, Brittae. Georgia O'Keeffe 1887-1986: Blumen in der Wüste. Köln: Benedikt Taschen, 1994. Reproduced: p. 67
Novak, Barbara. "Georgia O'Keeffe and American Intellectual and Visual Traditions." In The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, edited by Peter H. Hassrick. New York: Harry N. Abrams in association with the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, 1997. Mentioned: p. 79; Reproduced: p. 79
Lynes, Barbara Buhler. Georgia O'Keeffe: Catalogue Raisonné, 2 vols. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999. Reproduced: p. 666
Czestochowski, Joseph S., and Marjorie P. Balge-Crozier. Georgia O'Keeffe Visions of the Sublime. Memphis: Torch Press and International Arts, 2004. Reproduced: p. 148
Corn, Wanda M., and Patricia McDonnell. The Great American Thing: Modern Art and National Identity, 1915-1935. Tacoma, WA: Tacoma Art Museum, 2005. Mentioned: p. 423; Reproduced: p. 249
Souter, Janet, and Georgia O'Keeffe. Georgia O'Keeffe. New York: Parkstone, 2005. Mentioned: p. 149; Reproduced: p. 148
Adams, Henry. What's American About American Art?: A Gallery Tour in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2008. Mentioned: p. 142; Reproduced: p. 143
Leeds, Valerie Ann, and Diana M. Vela. Georgia O'Keeffe and the Faraway: Nature and Image. Fort Worth, TX: National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame, 2010. Mentioned: p. 25; Reproduced: p. 25
Lynes, Barbara Buhler, and Judy Lopez. Georgia O'Keeffe and Her Houses: Ghost Ranch and Abiquiu. New York: Abrams, in association with the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, 2012. Reproduced: p. 49
Pollock, Griselda. "Seeing O'Keeffee Seeing." In Georgia O'Keeffe, edited by Tanya Barsonr, 102-137. London: Tate Gallery Publishing Ltd., 2016. Reproduced: p. 110
Eldredge, Charles C. Georgia O'Keeffe: American and Modern. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1993. Reproduced: p. 127
Lynes, Barbara Buhler, and Russell Bowman. O'Keeffe's O'Keeffes: The Artist's Collection. New York, NY: Thames & Hudson, 2001. Reproduced: no. 66
Lynes, Barbara Buhler, Lesley Poling-Kempes, and Frederick W. Turner. Georgia O'Keeffe and New Mexico: A Sense of Place. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004. Reproduced: p. 83
Exhibition history

The Pittsburgh International Exhibition of Paintings. The Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh (October 19-December 21, 1950).

An Exhibition by Georgia O'Keeffe. Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA (October 4-December 4, 1960).

Exhibition of Newly Elected Members and Recipients of Honors and Awards. American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York (1963).

Georgia O'Keeffe: An Exhibition of the Work of the Artist from 1916 to 1966. Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, Fort Worth (March 17-May 8, 1966); Houston Museum of Art, Houston (May 17-June 19, 1966).

Georgia O'Keeffe. University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque (September 8-October 13, 1966).

Georgia O'Keeffe. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (October 8-November 29, 1970); The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago (January 6-February 7, 1971); San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco (March 15-April 30, 1971).

Georgia O'Keeffe: Nature and Abstraction. Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver (October 6, 2007-January 13, 2008).

Georgia O'Keeffe. Tate Modern, London (July 6-October 30, 2016); Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien (December 7, 2016-March 26, 2017); Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (April 22-July 30, 2017).

The Georgia O'Keeffe Gift. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 4-November 15, 1987).

The Year in Review for 1987. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 24-April 17, 1988).

The Precisionist Aesthetic in American Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 24-April 9, 1989).

Georgia O'Keeffe: American and Modern. Hayward Gallery, London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (organizer) (April 8-June 22, 1993); Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico (August 1-October 24, 1993); Yokohama Museum of Art (November 28, 1993-February 20, 1994).

O'Keeffe's O'Keeffes: The Artist's Collection. Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI (organizer) (May 4-August 19, 2001); Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, NM (September 14, 2001-January 13, 2002); Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humbelbaek, Denmark (February 8-May 20, 2002).

O'Keeffe and New Mexico: A Sense of Place. Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH (October 5, 2004-January 16, 2005).

Georgia O'Keeffe: Nature and Abstraction. Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada (organizer) (October 6, 2007-January 13, 2008).

O'Keeffe and Moore. San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA (organizer) (May 12-August 27, 2023) https://www.sdmart.org/exhibition/okeeffe-and-moore/; The Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, NM (August 30-December 31, 2023); Montréal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, Quebec, Canada (February 5-June 9, 2024).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1987.141