Georgia O'Keeffe's The Black Place III has been announced as one of the main attractions at Christie's American Art auction on November 28.
The New York sale will be topped by Edward Hopper's October on Cape Cod, which is expected to see bids in the region of $8m-12m. Two works from O'Keeffe will follow, with The Black Place III valued at $1.5m-2.5m.
 O'Keeffe was fascinated by New Mexico's landscapes, prompting a move there in 1949 |
The 1945 pastel piece is inspired by scenes from O'Keeffe's home in New Mexico, which she moved to permanently in 1949 following a long fascination with the area's landscapes. As with many of her works, it finds a "careful balance of realism and abstraction" according to Christie's, and is one of around 15 paintings she completed of "The Black Place".
"The Black Place is about 150 miles from Ghost Ranch [New Mexico] and as you come to it over a hill, it looks like a mile of elephants - grey hills all about the same size with almost white sand at their feet. When you get into the hills you find that all the surfaces are evenly crackled so walking and climbing are easy," commented O'Keeffe, as quoted in Pincus-Witten's 1986 book Georgia O'Keeffe: Selected Paintings and Works on Paper.
Also featuring in the auction is O'Keeffe's Sun Water Maine, a 1922 coastal landscape that further displays the artist's mastery of the pastel medium. It is expected to sell for $1m-1.5m.
The current world record for O'Keeffe's work at auction is held by Calla Lilies with Red Anemone, which sold for $6.1m at Christie's in 2001.
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