Interactive Timeline Offers New View of O’Keeffe’s Career
An innovative tool gives researchers, students, and O’Keeffe enthusiasts insight into the lifetime production of one of the world’s most prolific artists.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE–December 20, 2023 (Santa Fe, NM)–Every piece of artwork created by Georgia O’Keeffe can now be seen in a new interactive, digital visualization on the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum’s website. The new tool organizes more than 2,000 pieces of artwork created by O’Keeffe in her lifetime—including oil paintings, sketches, watercolors, pastels, photographs, sculptures, and ceramic pieces—for researchers, students, and the public to view.
Liz Neely, the Museum’s Curator of Digital Experience, spearheaded the innovative effort that allows for a full view of the breadth of O’Keeffe’s artistic career, which spanned more than 60 years. Bringing 21st-century research practices to the field of art history, the tool is especially impactful at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum—one of the few female single-artist museums in the world.
“Georgia O’Keeffe produced thousands of works—from minimalist sketches to garage-size oil paintings. The methods we’ve previously used to catalog these works were inaccessible to many audiences and, because they relied so heavily on printed material, were difficult to update,” Neely said. “This tool provides accurate information to researchers in academia and it’s a new way for the public to engage with the art and life of O’Keeffe.”
The tool is an entirely new type of artwork exploration based on months of audience research and numerous prototypes. Every piece of art O’Keeffe created throughout her lifetime is delineated into a timeline that filters by medium and links to a more detailed listing of the object in the Museum’s Collection Online which includes creation dates, provenance, exhibition showings, and provides the ability to zoom in for a detailed view of each piece. As a digital tool, the information can also be updated in real-time as works around the world are bought, sold, and exhibited.
The project, Neely hopes, is a step toward reimagining O’Keeffe’s catalogue raisonné, a comprehensive listing of O’Keeffe’s artwork that was published in 1999 by former Museum curator, Barbara Buhler Lynes. An enormous two-volume publication of more than 2,000 pages, the O’Keeffe catalogue raisonné is only available in print, making it cost-prohibitive to many and nearly impossible to keep updated.
“The goal is to combine this tool with Barbara Buhler Lynes’ work and continued efforts of the Museum, to create what would be the first completely digital catalogue raisonné,” Neely said.
Neely credits many at the Museum for their contributions to the project including years of data entry from interns and hours of information work by Debbie Orona and the Museum’s Data Management Working Group which includes Judy Smith, Sherri Sorensen, Liz O’Brien, Liz Ehrnst, and Ariel Russell. Design for Context served as technical partners on the project with Kate Haley Goldman as the user researcher. The project was generously funded by the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation and can be viewed at collections.okeeffemuseum.org/visualization.
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For media inquiries, contact:
Renee Lucero | Public Relations Manager 505-946-1063 rlucero@gokm.org
ABOUT THE GEORGIA O’KEEFFE MUSEUM: Since 1997, the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum celebrates the art, life, and independent spirit of Georgia O’Keeffe. Located in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where Georgia O’Keeffe lived the final decades of her life, the O’Keeffe has sites and experiences in two historic destinations, Santa Fe and Abiquiú. For more information, please visit gokm.org.
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