SANTA DE, NM.- The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum added to its collection Georgia O’Keeffe’s painting, Kachina (1931). Acquired from notable modern art collectors Jan and Marica Vilcek, the oil on wood piece joins the Museum’s holdings of more than 140 of the artist’s iconic oil paintings.

Kachina reflects O’Keeffe’s early experiences in New Mexico. The image represents a katsina, a Hopi religious idol. “What is clear to me, as an artist, is that O’Keeffe is looking at the katsina doll as a subject matter and art,” wrote Ramona Sakiestewa in an essay featured in Georgia O’Keeffe in New Mexico: Architecture, Katsinam, and the Land, the accompanying catalogue for the Museum’s 2012 exhibition of the same name. Sakiestewa is a Hopi artist and secretary of the O’Keeffe Museum’s Board of Trustees. The Georgia O’Keeffe in New Mexico exhibition marked the last time Kachina was on public view. Wrote Sakiestewa of O’Keeffe, “She stepped away from the didactic interpretation of a katsina doll. Instead, she explored them visually through line, shape, and scale, and in a variety of settings.”

The Vilceks have collected some masterworks of American modernism. Included in the Vilcek Collection are creations by Marsden Hartley, Arthur Dove, and other O’Keeffe pieces. Terms of the Kachina sale remain private. The painting officially became a part of the O’Keeffe Museum’s collection on April 20, 2018.

Kachina will join a selection of O’Keeffe’s thematic work at the Museum’s galleries in Santa Fe, beginning this month. Some of the galleries close April 23-27 to rotate works on view, and for routine site maintenance. Kachina will be on display with related paintings O’Keeffe created of Hopi katsinam tithu when the galleries re-open. The Museum recognizes that representations of katsinam are culturally sensitive; visitors wishing to avoid seeing Kachina and related works should note that they will be on view in Gallery 8.