When her husband Alfred Stieglitz died in 1946, Georgia O'Keeffe left New Mexico to settle Stieglitz's complicated finances in New York. She wound up having to stay in the city for three years. One of her few paintings from that disruptive period is a memory of her New Mexico home. Springfrom 1948 remained in O'Keeffe's private collection until her death. Last month, the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe received a grant from Bank of America for a much-needed restoration of Spring.
"It is a major work for O'Keeffe, and it contains a number of her iconic images," says Dale Kronkright, the Museum's Head of Conservation. "We expect we will spend an entire year -- to do the preliminary research, the testing analysis that helps us understand what has deteriorated and why, and then actually do the treatment."