Wong Lai Yung (Joyce)talks on Georgia O’Keefe: Cow’s Skull with Calico Roses (1931)

                               

Artist: Georgia O’Keefe

Title: Cow's Skull with Calico Roses

Year: 1931

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 91.4 x 61 cm (36 x 24 in.)

Georgia O’Keefe was an American female artist. The artwork “Cow’s Skull with Calico Roses” was done in 1931 which was just after the Great Depression and the rise of Fascism. These political and economical issues affected the style of the artists at that time. Also, the American president at that time was Roosevelt. He introduced social programs, employed many artists and granted some measure of official status to abstract art. We could see this in Regionalist and Social Realist artworks. This also flavored the development of Vernacular modernism, the artists could develop their own style without restrictions.

Under this circumstance, Georgia did not have a specific style, but through her artworks, we could see the influences of photography, 20^th century abstraction and the landscape of the American Southwest.

For this artwork, Cow’s Skull with Calico Roses, Georgia picked the desiccated skull from the dry desert of Arizona and New Mexico. She depicted the form of the skull in a simple way that we could hardly see the details of the skull. The roses on the skull were also depicted simply. Apart from the subjects, the black vertical part behind the skull and the horizontal horns led to the imagination of Crucifixion, which was the form of the cross. Furthermore, the death skull was softened by the living roses on it. This kind of juxtaposition of living and death things also related to the death and resurrection themes in Christian artworks. This reflected that Georgia kept the ideas of ancient art and changed these into own style, which was a characteristic of vernacular modernism. Besides, this format of putting the death and living things together also showed the feature of desert, which was also regionalist. Other than vernacular modernism and regionalism, this artwork also got the surrealism quality as we could hardly see a death things put with living things. This was impossible to happen in the reality and it was like a dream that only happened under our imagination and unconscious mind. In addition, the skull was dead and fragile, but the Calico roses were alive , strong and powerful as Calico was a heavy cotton fabric that is usually plain white. This created a big contrast. Also, the white skull and roses together with the black vertical past created a big contrast in color. Moreover, the plain background of this artwork created a harmony and peaceful atmosphere that made people calm and feel comfortable.

Alfred Stieglitz even commented that Georgia’s works were the “purest, finest, sincerest things that had entered 291 in a long time.”

I was interested on this artwork because when I first saw it, it gave me a simple and peaceful meaning which I always believe “simple is beautiful”. And when I look at it in detail, it was so mysterious that it was difficult to understand what the artist wanted to express. Therefore, we could use our imagination to explain this artwork and it was good for me to get something that belong to me only. This further made the artwork special.

And finally my question is : If you are asked to find a thing from your daily life, and turn it into an artwork, what will you use and why?

Here are my references

•         http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/61428

•         http://www.okeeffemuseum.org/

•         http://www.soho-art.com/Geogia-OKeeffe.shtml