Sotheby's recorded an unexpected success
for its American art sale held in New York on November 20, 2014 which totaled
75.4 million USD when it sold Georgia O'Keeffe's painting "Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1" for 44.4 million US againt a high estimate
of 15 million USD.
O'Keefe has thus become the most expensive female artist
on the art market well ahead of Joan Mitchell's record which stood at 11.9
million USD for her work "Untitled" sold at Christie's New York in May 2014. O'Keeffe's
previous auction record of 6.2 million had been set in 2001for "Calla lilies with red anemone" (1928), sold at Christie's New York..
The three works offered in the sale by the Georgia O'Keefe Museum
totaled 50.4 million US. "On the Old Santa Fe Road" (1930–31) notably sold for 5.1 million, compared with an
estimate of 2–3 million.
O'Keefe's flower painting was
described in the sale catalogue as a strikingly bold and elegant representation
of the artist's mature intent and aesthetic.
The painting had been
with the artist's sister, Anita O'Keeffe Young up until about the mid sixties and then
appeared at auction twice, firstly at Sotheby's New York in December 1987 when
it fetched 990,000 USD and again at Sotheby's New York in December 1994, when
it sold for 1,047,500 USD at its high estimate.
During the sale, a Cubist-Abstract
work by Stanton McDonald Wright titled "Still-Life Synchromy" (1917) sold for 2.1 million USD
between its estimate of 1.5–2.5 million.
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