Talk in Los Alamos | Peeking Beneath the Paint: Using Multi-band Imaging to Discover Georgia O’Keeffe’s Evolving Creative Process

Join us in Los Alamos for an evening with Dale Kronkright, Head of Conservation, who discovered two of O’Keeffe’s earlier compositional drawings under the painted surface of 1970s oil on canvas, Untitled (City Night). The evolution of the three compositions on this large canvas reflects the recurring role of memory in O’Keeffe’s creative process. The work also underscores O’Keeffe’s lifelong interest in the dynamic compositional relationships between primary and secondary forms, and between positive and negative spaces. Both career-long, creative themes will be revealed in Dale’s 40-minute presentation, with time afterwards for questions and discussion.

$10 admission | Free for Bradbury Science Museum Association members

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This talk is presented by the Bradbury Science Museum Association

About the Speaker

Dale Kronkright has been Head of Conservation at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum since its inception in 1997. Kronkright began research into O’Keeffe’s studio materials and techniques in 2000 with scientists and conservators at the National Gallery of Art, resulting in the 2006 exhibition and catalog Color and Conservation, which documented the 40-year friendship of conservator Caroline Keck and Georgia O’Keeffe. His latest research on O’Keeffe’s studio materials and techniques was published in 2021 in the essay “An Intentional Language: The Studio Materials and Methods of Georgia O’Keeffe, 1915–1975” in the 2020 exhibition catalog for Georgia O’Keeffe, at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, in Madrid.

Dale earned his BA in American Culture Studies from the University of California at Davis and his postgraduate certificate in Conservation at the Peabody Museum at Harvard. Before coming to work for the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Dale was Senior Conservator for the Museum of New Mexico for seven years and was Senior Conservator at the Regional Conservation Center, Bishop Museum, Honolulu for six years.

He has served as an instructor and author for the Getty Conservation Institute and as adjunct faculty at the Art Conservation Graduate Program at SUNY Buffalo and the Department of Art Conservation at the University of Delaware at Winterthur.