Georgia O'Keeffe frequently painted animal bones alongside New Mexico landscapes.
She collected bones and other natural objects in the desert and used them as subjects in paintings and drawings. Cow skulls, pelvises, and other bones appear in works that combine stark forms with the bright colors and open spaces of the Southwest.
The bones were not simply scientific illustrations. O'Keeffe isolated, enlarged, and arranged them as modernist shapes, often placing them against skies or landscapes. Their worn surfaces and strong silhouettes allowed her to explore structure, contrast, and scale.
Viewers sometimes interpret these paintings only as symbols of death, but O'Keeffe resisted narrow explanations of her imagery. She was interested in the visual character of the objects themselves. Her paintings also included flowers, leaves, rocks, buildings, and landscapes, so bones represent one important strand of her New Mexico work rather than her entire subject matter.