Animal bones inspired Georgia O’Keeffe’s 1930s painting series featuring animal skulls.
O’Keeffe collected bones in the New Mexico landscape and used them as strong, simplified forms in paintings. Cow skulls and other bones appear against vivid skies and desert settings, where their contours become symbols of endurance, mortality, and the harsh beauty of the Southwest.
Works such as Cow’s Skull: Red, White, and Blue show how she could turn a found object into an emblematic composition. She did not simply document natural history; she enlarged, isolated, and rearranged bones to emphasize shape and color.
Viewers sometimes assume that all of O’Keeffe’s skull paintings depict human remains. Her famous New Mexico skull works generally feature animal bones, especially cattle skulls. This subject also connects her still lifes with the landscapes and cultural imagery of the American Southwest.