BENTONVILLE -- An exhibition featuring work from artist Georgia O'Keeffe will open at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art this month and includes a $44.4 million painting.
Jimson Weed/Flower No. 1 is the centerpiece of "Georgia O'Keeffe: See What I See," which opens March 28. The painting sold in November at Sotheby's auction house for nearly quadruple the asking price.
Crystal Bridges confirmed Friday that it acquired the 1932 oil canvas, but did not confirm the purchase price. Sotheby's announced the amount in November, but did not identify the buyer at that time. The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, N.M., was the seller. O'Keeffe lived in New Mexico from 1949 until her death in 1986.
Also included in the exhibit are works on loan to the museum or those owned either in the permanent collection or via the Stieglitz Collection, which the museum co-owns with Fisk University in Tennessee. A rare O'Keeffe sculpture, on loan to the museum from the private collection of founder Alice Walton, also will be on display.
Museum Executive Director Rod Bigelow said it was "very important" to Crystal Bridges that it add Jimson Weed, one of O'Keeffe's most well-known works, to the museum's permanent collection. The estimated sale price had been $10 million to $15 million.
"Clearly, O'Keeffe is an important artist within the collection and within the larger context of American art," Bigelow said. "To acquire a work from the flower series was important to us. When we look to acquire works, this is sort of one that is intersecting all of our collection objectives as well as our mission. O'Keeffe is an important player there."
O'Keeffe's painting fits with the museum's objective to "unite the power of art with the beauty of nature." Jimson Weed also expands the museum's collection of works either from female artists or featuring women. Crystal Bridges has in the past hosted tours to highlight "strong women" in works of art like Norman Rockwell's Rosie the Riveter painting or the art created by women.
With the O'Keeffe purchase, Crystal Bridges nearly quadrupled the previous record paid for a work of art from a female artist. Untitled, a 1960 Joan Mitchell work, sold for $11.9 million in May.
O'Keeffe likely would have bristled at the idea of being labeled a strong female artist, said Crystal Bridges curator Mindy Besaw. Instead of being known as talented for a woman, O'Keeffe sought to be respected regardless of her gender.
"Georgia O'Keeffe herself would shy away from this celebration," Besaw said of calling O'Keeffe the highest-selling female artist. "When people would compliment her as a great woman painter she was angered by the put-down. She wanted to be considered right along with the men."
Just as O'Keeffe wanted to be seen as more than just a female painter, she wanted her flower paintings to be viewed as more than simple paintings of flowers. O'Keeffe, according to the Sotheby's catalog entry for the auction, intentionally chose a larger canvas for the work and avoided painting the flower to scale. She "used color, shape and scale to induce an emotional reaction from the viewer," the entry said.
O'Keeffe wanted viewers of the piece not to see "it small like the flower is small." "So I said to myself, 'I'll paint what I see, what the flower is to me but I'll paint it big and they will be surprised into taking time to look at it,'" she explained in 1939.
Purchasing Jimson Weed has opened the door for collaboration between the O'Keeffe museum and Crystal Bridges. No definitive plans have been set for the two to work together, but future exhibitions are part of the conversation.
Cody Hartley, director of curatorial affairs at the O'Keeffe museum, said there have been conversations with Crystal Bridges regarding some international opportunities. Currently, the O'Keeffe museum is supporting exhibitions through loans in Europe and Australia with a potential project in Japan.
"I think it would be great to have more partners to help share American art in an international context," Hartley said. "American art was not created in a vacuum."
More than 3,000 works are in the Georgia O'Keeffe museum collection, including 1,149 of O'Keeffe's art. Paintings, drawings and sculptures created between 1901 and 1984 are part of the collection and selling Jimson Weed allowed the museum to increase its acquisitions budget "substantially," Hartley said.
Bigelow said it is too early to know in what ways the museums will collaborate. Both museums want to take their time in finding projects or exhibitions that make sense and fit with their larger missions.
Likewise, Bigelow said Crystal Bridges went through a "thoughtful stewardship process" before announcing the acquisition of Jimson Weed.
"It's a matter of putting acquisitions into a collection in which it can be presented correctly," Bigelow said. "We want to present a work in the context that makes sense within the larger goal of the institution."
Information for this article was contributed by Kevin Kinder of the