Which 1932 Georgia O'Keeffe painting features a cow's skull and an American flag motif?
Answer
Cow's Skull: Red, White, and Blue
Answer
Cow's Skull: Red, White, and Blue
Cow's Skull: Red, White, and Blue is Georgia O'Keeffe's 1932 painting of a cow's skull with an American flag motif.
The work combines a bleached animal skull with red, white, and blue stripes. O'Keeffe found bones in the New Mexico desert and used them repeatedly as subjects, treating their shapes as forms that could be isolated, enlarged, and arranged against broad areas of color. The skull paintings are not simply documentary images of remains; they are carefully composed modernist paintings.
The title identifies both the central object and the national colors. That makes it distinct from other bone works such as Ram's Head, White Hollyhock-Hills and Pelvis with the Distance. O'Keeffe often painted bones against the sky or empty backgrounds, giving them a monumental presence.
The painting belongs to her New Mexico period, although she continued to move between regional subjects and other themes throughout her career.
Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Oct. 2026