Red and Pink Rocks and Teeth

Georgia O'KeeffeWW-1938-013520

1938·Oil on canvas·53.3 × 33 cm (21 × 13 in.)

<p>Georgia O’Keeffe was fascinated by the animal bones, weathered and worn, that she found in the desert in New Mexico. In <em>Red and Pink Rocks and Teeth</em> she presented a jawbone alongside two stacked rocks that appear both monumental and indeterminate. The smooth, rounded forms of the red and pink rocks appear in enigmatic relation to one another, as the red pebble appears 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 modern trompe l’oeil that questions the nature of representation and perception.</p>

Catalogue

Year: 1938
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 53.3 × 33 cm (21 × 13 in.)
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Artist: Georgia O'Keeffe

Artist

Georgia O'Keeffe

Painting

One of the most successful artists of the 20th century, Georgia O’Keeffe enjoyed a long and varied artistic career in which she introduced many new aesthetic perspectives and approaches in Modernism. Born in Wisconsin in 1887, she studied at the Art Institute of Chicago beginning in 1905 before taking teaching position in South Carolina, Virginia and Texas. She moved to New York City in 1918 at the age of 31 where she became part of the artistic milieu of her future husband photographer Alfred Stieglitz. In these years, she became fascinated with the fast pace of city life and produced paintings highlighting the city’s soaring skyscrapers as symbols of the modern world.

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