The Creative Journeys of Georgia O’Keeffe and Henry Moore

From a mutual desire to collect bones to an interest in Surrealism, Georgia O’Keeffe’s and Henry Moore’s careers and creative practices share many surprising commonalities, as well as some notable distinctions.  

To explore some of these overlaps, listen to Dale Kronkright, Head of Conservation at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, and Anita Feldman, Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs at the San Diego Museum of Art, as they discuss the life and work of these luminary modernists and how their parallel worlds inspired the traveling exhibition O’Keeffe and Moore.

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This talk was recorded as part of our free ‘Mornings With O’Keeffe’ lecture series on the first Wednesday of every month.

About the Speakers:

Dale Kronkright, Head of Conservation, Georgia O’Keeffe Museum:

Dale Kronkright has been Head of Conservation at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum since its inception in 1997. Dale 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. Prior to coming to work for the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Dale was Senior Conservator for the Museum of New Mexico, in Santa Fe 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.

Anita Feldman, Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs, San Diego Museum of Art

Anita Feldman is Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs at The San Diego Museum of Art. She joined the Museum in 2014 and prior to that was Curator, Head of Collections and Exhibitions, and a member of the Moore Authentication Committee, for the Henry Moore Foundation for eighteen years, curating exhibitions of his work worldwide and overseeing major conservation initiatives for Moore’s works including for the Houses of Parliament and Kensington Gardens. Her publications include the first books on Moore’s textiles and his original plasters, as well as Moore/Rodin (2013). At The San Diego Museum of Art, she curated Richard Deacon: What You See is What You Get (2017); Art of the Open Air (2015); Tim Shaw: Beyond Reason (2018); Terra: Fernando Casasempere (2022); and Justin Sterling: Chapel of the Rocks (2022). She is the curator of O’Keeffe and Moore and editor of the accompanying catalogue.