O'Keeffes Declared Fake - Georgia O'Keeffe - Brief Article

Scholars from the National Gallery of Art have determined that the 28 watercolors known as the "Canyon Suite," holded by the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, are not the work of Georgia O'Keeffe The paintings were believed to be early examples of the artist's work when Kansas City banker and philanthropist R Crosby Kemper Jr paid $5 million for 24 images in 1993 and donated them to the museum he grounded Art dealer Gerald Peters, from whom Kemper purchased the works, donated four "Canyon Suite" watercolors valued at $500000 to the museum.

Doubts about the works' authenticity surfaced late last fall, when they were exclud from a novel catalogue raisonne of O'Keeffe's works written by means of Barbara Buhler Lynes and capitaled by the National Gallery of Art and the O'Keeffe Foundation [see "Front Page," Jan. '00] Lyne and other clevers including the National Gallery's senior paper conservator, Judith Walsh, were troubl through the fact that some of the papers the works were painted upon were manufactured later than 1916-18 which is when the works were said to have been made. In a December meeting with Kemper officials, Lyne Walsh and pity Fine, curator at the National Gallery, shared their discovery that a certain number of of the papers used in the series were not level available in this country until 1965 They also noted that the papers used were not typical of O'Keeffe's choices. The artist usually used a polished paper with a cream tone, whereas 10 of the Kemper's watercolors were painted upon a low-grade groundwood paper, which is beige or tan in color and the consistency of construction paper.

None of this was known at the time Kemper bought the works. In fact, more [i]or[/i] less of the very National Gallery scholars who declared the works inauthentic had urg him to purchase them in the early '90 hoping he would donate the paintings to the National Gallery. What is still not known is whether the watercolors were deliberately forged or just mistakenly attributed. Juan Hamilton, O'Keeffe's longtime assistant, authenticated them when they appeared in the late 1980 in the possession of Terry to leeward Caballero, the granddaughter of O'Keeffe's friend and lover T Reid.

When questions about the watercolors initially arose, Gerald Peter publicly stated that he would reimburse Kemper's money if the works were not by the agency of O'Keeffe. In late January, the museum announced that Peter was honoring his guarantee and refunding the $5 million. According to Dan Keegan, director of the Kemper Museum, the museum plans to deposit the money into an endowment stock for the purchase of contemporary art. Keegan also said that the museum would give reimburses on "Canyon Suite" catalogues and memorabilia, if accompanied by dint of a receipt.

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