Peaking Beneath the Paint: Using multi-band imaging to discover Georgia O’Keeffe’s evolving creative process for the 1970’s oil on canvas, Untitled (City Night) Talk by Dale Kronkright, Head of Conservation at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum who discovered two of O’Keeffe’s earlier compositional drawings under the painted surface of Untitled (City Night), an 84” by 48” oil on canvas.
The evolution of the three compositions on this large canvas reflects the recurring role of memory in O’Keeffe’s creative process. The work also underscores O’Keeffe’s life-long interest in the dynamic compositional relationships between primary and secondary forms, and between positive and negative spaces. Both career-long, creative themes will be revealed in Dale’s 40 minute presentation, with time afterwards for questions and discussion.
$10 admission; free for BSMA members (you can become a member on our Join Us page).
Wednesday, August 19, 6-8pm at Fuller Lodge, Los Alamos, NM (doors open at 6 and the talk starts at 6:30).
Untitled (City Night), 1970s
Oil on canvas, 84 1/16 x 48 1/16 inches
Collection: Georgia O'Keeffe Museum
Gift of The Georgia O'Keeffe Foundation
2006.5.542, CR No. 1689
Courtesy of Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. Photo: Tim Nighswander/IMAGING4ART
About the Speaker
Dale Kronkright has been Head of Conservation at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum since its inception in 1997. Dale began research into O’Keeffe’s studio materials and techniques in 2000 with scientists and conservators at the National Gallery of Art, resulting in the 2006 exhibition and catalog “Color and Conservation” which documented the 40-year friendship of New York conservator Caroline Keck and Georgia O’Keeffe.
His latest research on O’Keeffe’s studio materials and techniques was published in 2021 in the essay “An Intentional Language: The Studio Materials and Methods of Georgia O’Keeffe, 1915 -1975” in the 2020 exhibition catalog for Georgia O'Keeffe, at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, in Madrid.
Dale earned his BA in American Culture Studies from the University of California at Davis and his postgraduate certificate in Conservation at the Peabody Museum, at Harvard.
Prior to coming to work for the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Dale was Senior Conservator for the Museum of New Mexico, in Santa Fe for seven years and was Senior Conservator at the Regional Conservation Center, Bishop Museum, Honolulu for six years.
He has served as an instructor and author for the Getty Conservation Institute and as adjunct faculty at the Art Conservation Graduate Program at SUNY Buffalo and the Department of Art Conservation at the University of Delaware at Winterthur.
Dale’s current conservation research projects include:
- the efficacy of micro-climate framing systems for the preservation of O’Keeffe’s paintings, pastels, watercolors and drawings since 2000.
- with engineers from the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, Los Alamos National Lab in New Mexico, Polytec, Inc in Michigan and vibration engineers from White Noise, LLC. on preventing vibration-induced damage of works of art in transit. For this work, Dale has co-authored multiple US and foreign patents.
