Brown Sail, Wing and Wing, Nassau

Artist Georgia O'Keeffe (American, 1887-1986)

Date1940

DimensionsPainting: 38 × 30 in. (96.5 × 76.2 cm)
Frame: 39 1/2 × 31 1/2 × 2 1/8 in. (100.3 × 80 × 5.4 cm)

MediumOil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number

1949.106

Not on View

Label TextNothing is less real than realism. Details are confusing. It is only by selection, by elimination, by emphasis, that we get at the real meaning of things. — Georgia O’Keeffe Best known for her iconic close-up views of flowers, Georgia O’Keeffe was a pioneer of Modernism and abstraction in America. Staunchly independent, she forged her own artistic path across seven decades. This canvas, painted while O’Keeffe was on vacation in the Bahamas, exhibits her signature crisp lines and sharp color. The way that the sail of the boat takes on an organic, almost dorsal fin-like shape is in keeping with O’Keeffe’s signature style of drawing emphasis to and exaggerating natural forms.Published ReferencesLee, Katharine C., "Modern Art," The Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 11, no. 4, Autumn 1968, p. 84, repr.

Strickler, Susan E., "American Paintings at the Toledo Musuem of Art," Antiques, vol. 116, no. 5, Nov. 1979, p. 1119, repr. (col.) pl. XX.

Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, Anerican Paintings, Toledo, 1979, p. 86, pl. 189.

Montgomery, Elizabeth, Georgia O'Keeffe, New York, 1993, repr. p. 74 (col.).

Lynes, Barbara Buhler, Georgia O'Keeffe: Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven, Yale, 1999, no. 987, repr. vol. 2, p. 623 (col.).

Exhibition HistoryNew York, An American Place, Georgia O'Keeffe, New Paintings, 1941, no. 13 (dated 1940).

Toledo Museum of Art, 36th Annual, 1949, no. 54.

The Toledo Museum of Art, Fiftieth Anniversary Exhibition of Contemporary American Oil Paintings Acquired by the Toledo Museum 1901-1951.

Grand Rapids (MI) Art Gallery, The Art of Seeing, 1958.

Naples, Palazzo Reale, 25 anni di pittura americana, 1933-1958, 1959, repr. p. 30 (Exhibition organized by the City Art Museum of St. Louis for the U. S. Information Agency. Also shown in Florence; Frankfort, Germany, Landesmuseum-Darmstadt; Gothenburg, Sweden, Gothenburg Art Museum, and York, England, City Art Gallery).

Gallery Strozzina, Florence, Italy. 1960.

Permanente Gallery, Milan, Italy. 1960.

Gallery of Modern Art, Rome, Italy. 1960.

York City Art Gallery, York, England. 1960.

Milwaukee (WI) Art Center, Ten Americans, 1961.

Toledo Museum of Art, Heritage and Horizon: American Painting 1776-1976, 1976, no. 45, repr. (Buffalo, Albright-Knox Art Gallery; Detroit Institute of Arts; Cleveland Museum of Art).

Düsseldorf, Städtische Kunsthalle; Zurich, Kunsthaus; Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, 2 Jahrzehnte amerikanische Malerei 1920-1940, 1979, no. 88, repr.

Madison Art Center, Georgia O'Keeffe: Paintings, 1984, (no cat.).

Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Georgia O'Keeffe at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art, 2002-2003, no. 14.

Zurich, Kunsthaus, Georgia O'Keeffe, 2003-2004, no. 46, repr. (col.) p. 119.