Fishing is an important and enduring practice in Hawaiian people‘s food systems, though shifting factors have forced Hawaiians to supplement to traditional fishing methods with larger-scale commercial efforts. In Fishhook from Hawaii – No. 1 (1939 ) Georgia O’Keefe depicts a fish hook (Makau) – which symbolize this prosperity and connection between humans and water – adorned with the vibrant feathers of local birds. Continue reading Modern Art Monday Presents: Georgia O’Keefe, Fishhook from Hawaii – No. 1→
The realm of art has been historically dominated by male figures, yet the impact of famous female painters has been substantial and transformative. These women have broken barriers, challenged conventions, and created masterpieces that continue to inspire and resonate across generations. Their works not only showcase artistic genius but also reflect the social, political, and personal landscapes of their times. Continue reading Trailblazing Women: Celebrating Famous Female Painters→
In this work of pastel on paper, Goat’s Horns With Blue (1945), Georgia O’Keefe treats the spiral of a goat’s horn as both subject and lens, exploring its distinct materiality, and using it to frame the sky beyond. She found such horns and bones, which she collected in the new Mexican desert, to be “most wonderful against the blue — that blue that will always be there as it is now after all man’s destruction is finished” (a likely reference to World War II, which ended the year this work was made). Continue reading Modern Art Monday Presents: Georgia O’Keeffe, Goat’s Horns With Blue→
From 1943 to 1947, Georgia O’Keeffe painted a series that explored the intricate shapes and surfaces of animal bones. The bones were pictured in their entirety or in magnified detail. In this abstract variation, Pelvis II (1944) O’Keeffe draws attention to the blue sky seen through the empty socks. The work demonstrates her ability to present what the writer Jean Toomer described as “the universe through the portal of a bone.”
Photographed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan.
Georgia O’Keeffe (1887 – 1986) was fascinated by the animal bones, weathered and worn, that she found in the desert in New Mexico. In Red and Pink Rocks and Teeth she presented a jawbone alongside two stacked rocks that appear both monumental and indeterminate. The smooth, rounded forms of the red and pinks rocks appear in enigmatic relation to one another, as the red pebble seems to recede from the picture plane even though it must be perched on top of the pink stone. Their abstracted forms and warm colors contrast sharply with the bleached, angular teeth and hard, cracked appearance of the jawbone and together construct a tromp l’ceil that questions the nature or representation and perception.
