Collection
Maine and Its Artists, 1710-1963 [Colby College Sesquicentennial Exhibition]
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This object is a member of the following groups (click any group name to view all objects in that group):
Exhibitions: In and Out of PlaceThemes: MLC Portfolio: Representing the Land
Exhibitions: Currents/Crosscurrents
Themes: MLC Portfolio: Visualizing Poetry
Object Information
For Georgia O’Keeffe nature was the catalyst that inspired almost all of her paintings for more than seventy years. Observing her environment with a keen eye for color, shape and light, she was able to capture the realism of the scene. Yet there was also a modernist sensibility to her vision that allowed her to eliminate extraneous details, flatten space, and simplify the composition to its essence. In her work, ordinary objects and locations transcend specific time and place to assume a universal and iconic beauty.
Like many other artists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries who vacationed in Maine including her good friend John Marin, O’Keeffe found new subject matter there for her art. The ocean itself was a major source of wonder and inspiration for O’Keeffe
By 1928, however, after several visits to York Beach. O'Keeffe felt ready to capture the vast, mysterious ocean in a large canvas. The extraordinary result was Wave, Night, a dramatic, nocturnal abstraction painted in inky blacks, deep blues. pinkish purples, and changing whites. The composition of the painting is starkly minimal and nearly symmetrical. Like O'Keeffe’s other abstractions of 1926–30, it emphasizes the interplay of point and line on a flat, two-dimensional plane. Many years later O'Keeffe recalled the experience: ''I loved running down the board walk to the ocean—watching the waves come in, spreading over the hard wet beach—the lighthouse steadily bright far over the waves in the evening when it was almost dark. This was one of the great events of the day.”
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In the spring of 1928, Georgia O’Keeffe vacationed at York Beach, Maine, about five miles south of Ogunquit. During this two-week stay, the ocean was a source of wonder and inspiration for the artist. Minimal yet dramatic, <i>Wave, Night</i> is a rare nocturnal seascape painted in inky blacks, deep blues, and pinkish purples. O’Keeffe later recalled the experience, “I loved running down the board walk to the ocean—watching the waves come in, spreading over the hard wet beach—the lighthouse steadily bright far over the waves in the evening when it was almost dark. This was one of the great events of the day.”
Jaime DeSimone
Charles H. Sawyer Curatorial Fellow
Exhibition History
This object was included in the following exhibitions:
Contemporary Paintings from the Addison Gallery, Andover, The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, 11/8/1950 - 11/19/1950Myths and Magic, The Children's Museum of the Denver Art Museum, 2/15/1951 - 5/15/1951
Amerikanische Malerei: Werden und Gegenwart, American Federation of Arts, 9/20/1951 - 10/5/1951
Paintings by Georgia O'Keeffe, Philbrook Art Center, 10/6/1952 - 11/30/1952
Georgia O'Keeffe , Dallas Museum of Art, 2/1/1953 - 2/22/1953
Variations...Three Centuries, Addison Gallery of American Art, 1/8/1954 - 2/15/1954
What Do You Paint, Madam?, Addison Gallery of American Art, 4/18/1956 - 6/11/1956
Scope in Collecting [25th Anniversary Exhibition], Addison Gallery of American Art, 10/19/1956 - 12/24/1956
Living with Design, Addison Gallery of American Art, 10/22/1959 - 10/23/1959
Maine and Its Artists, 1710-1963 [Colby College Sesquicentennial Exhibition], Colby College Museum of Art, 5/4/1963 - 8/31/1963
Art Since 1889, University Art Museum, The University of New Mexico, 10/20/1964 - 11/15/1964
Roots of Abstract Art in America, 1910-1930, Smithsonian Institution, 12/2/1965 - 1/9/1966
The Works, Addison Gallery of American Art, 11/7/1969 - 2/22/1970
Nothing is Certain But Change, Addison Gallery of American Art, 4/18/1975 - 5/18/1975
Andover Garden Club Exhibition, Addison Gallery of American Art, 4/10/1980 - 4/13/1980
The Split-Up: The Beginning of a New Art in America, Addison Gallery of American Art, 3/13/1981 - 4/12/1981
Masterworks from the Collection: 50th Anniversary Exhibition, Addison Gallery of American Art, 5/9/1981 - 6/14/1981
Masterworks of American Art from the Addison Gallery Collection, Hirschl and Adler Galleries, Inc., 10/6/1981 - 10/31/1981
The American Landscape Tradition, Cedar Rapids Museum of Art/Cedar Rapids Art Center, 11/7/1982 - 1/1/1983
Georgia O'Keeffe: Paintings, Madison Art Center, 2/25/1984 - 4/29/1984
American Masterworks, Addison Gallery of American Art, 10/5/1990 - 12/16/1990
American Abstraction at the Addison, Addison Gallery of American Art, 4/18/1991 - 7/31/1991
Point of View: Landscapes from the Addison Collection, Addison Gallery of American Art, 10/16/1992 - 12/20/1992
American Abstraction from the Addison Gallery of American Art, American Federation of Arts, 2/27/1993 - 12/4/1994
Andover Alumni Collectors, Addison Gallery of American Art, 4/29/1995 - 7/30/1995
Masterworks from the Permanent Collection, Addison Gallery of American Art, 9/5/1995 - 12/17/1995
Addison Gallery of American Art: 65 Years, Addison Gallery of American Art, 4/13/1996 - 7/31/1996
O'Keeffe and Texas, The Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum, 1/27/1998 - 4/5/1998
Parallel Perspectives: Early Twentieth Century American Art, Addison Gallery of American Art, 11/16/1999 - 5/1/2000
Modern Art and America: Alfred Stieglitz and His New York Galleries, National Gallery of Art, 1/28/2001 - 4/22/2001
Place and Perceptions, Addison Gallery of American Art, 4/16/2002 - 7/31/2002
Debating American Modernism: Stieglitz, Duchamp, and the New York Avant-Garde, American Federation of Arts, 1/24/2003 - 8/1/2003
Working from Nature, Addison Gallery of American Art, 9/19/2003 - 1/4/2004
Art, Artists, and the Addison: Building a Collection, Addison Gallery of American Art, 3/30/2004 - 7/31/2004
Eye on the Collection: Copley to Hopper, Addison Gallery of American Art, 12/21/2004 - 6/12/2005
Eye on the Collection: West to Hopper, Addison Gallery of American Art, 6/17/2005 - 10/16/2005
Toward Abstraction, Addison Gallery of American Art, 12/23/2005 - 3/26/2006
Coming of Age: American Art, 1850s to 1950s, American Federation of Arts, 9/9/2006 - 9/7/2009
Mix and Match: A Conversation between Paintings and Works on Paper, Addison Gallery of American Art, 1/23/2007 - 4/8/2007
So Long, Farewell, Addison Gallery of American Art, 4/7/2007 - 7/31/2007
Dove/O'Keeffe: Circles of Influence, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 6/7/2009 - 9/7/2009
Georgia O'Keeffe: Abstraction, Whitney Museum of American Art, 9/17/2009 - 1/15/2010
Inside, Outside, Upstairs, Downstairs: The Addison Anew, Addison Gallery of American Art, 9/7/2010 - 3/27/2011
80 @ 80 , Addison Gallery of American Art, 10/15/2011 - 12/31/2011
Eye on the Collection, Addison Gallery of American Art, 1/19/2013 - 3/10/2013
Eye on the Collection, Addison Gallery of American Art, 4/27/2013 - 7/31/2013
Exterior Spaces, Interior Places, Addison Gallery of American Art, 9/2/2014 - 1/4/2015
Heaven and Earth, Addison Gallery of American Art, 2/7/2015 - 4/5/2015
The Revolution of the Eye: Modern Art and the Birth of American Television, The Jewish Museum, 5/1/2015 - 6/11/2017
In Tandem: Inspirations and Collaborations, Addison Gallery of American Art, 9/12/2015 - 1/3/2016
Eye on the Collection, Addison Gallery of American Art, 9/1/2017 - 7/31/2018
In and Out of Place , Addison Gallery of American Art, 2/16/2019 - 7/31/2019
Currents/Crosscurrents: American Art, 1850–1950, Addison Gallery of American Art, 10/16/2020 - 3/7/2021
In American Waters, Peabody Essex Museum, 5/29/2021 - 1/31/2022
Georgia O'Keeffe: "Things I Had No Words For", Newport Art Museum, 7/16/2022 - 10/16/2022
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