Georgia O’Keeffe’s final large-scale painting, completed in 1972, was The Beyond.
The Beyond is associated with O’Keeffe’s late work and with the distant, open horizons that had long interested her. It was completed in 1972, when failing eyesight made it increasingly difficult for her to paint. After that, she worked with assistants and explored other media, including sculpture and pottery.
The painting’s place in her career is important because it marks the end of her sustained large-scale painting practice rather than the end of her artistic life. O’Keeffe continued to make art and remained creatively active for years, even as her methods changed.
It is sometimes confused with Sky Above Clouds IV, a 1965 painting that is also very large and late in her career. Sky Above Clouds IV is a major cloud painting, but it was completed seven years before The Beyond. O’Keeffe died in Santa Fe in 1986 at the age of 98.