Red and Pink Rocks and Teeth

Description

Georgia O’Keeffe was fascinated by the animal bones, weathered and worn, that she found in the desert in New Mexico. In Red and Pink Rocks and Teeth 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.

Provenance

Georgia O’Keeffe (1887–1986), New York and New Mexico, then Abiquiú, NM, from 1949 [on loan to the Art Institute of Chicago from 1949; letter from O’Keeffe to Daniel Catton Rich, Dec. 29, 1955; copy in curatorial object file]; given through the Alfred Stieglitz Collection to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1955.

Red and Pink Rocks and Teeth

Georgia O'Keeffe

1938

Accession Number

84742

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

53.3 × 33 cm (21 × 13 in.)

Classification

oil on canvas

Museum

The Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, United States

Credit Line

Alfred Stieglitz Collection, gift of Georgia O'Keeffe