Window on the West: an artists legacy - the art of Georgia O'Keeffe

Sunset, Dec, 1997 by Ben Marks

* Walking around Santa Fe this time of year, you see a lot of red ribbon, green boughs, and white cow skulls. The first two are obvious nods to the holiday season; the skulls have become equally obvious symbols of New Mexico, as popularized by the state's most famous artist, Georgia O'Keeffe. Which is curious, when you stop to think about it.

O'Keeffe wasn't born in New Mexico (try the Wisconsin prairie), and her bone paintings weren't even inspired here (thank the cow town of Amarillo, Texas, for that). In fact, one of her most famous works, Cow's Skull - Red, White and Blue, 1931, was actually painted in Lake George, New York. For O'Keeffe fans, though, the artist, her art, and New Mexico are inseparable, and there's no such thing as too much. For others, bleached steer skulls have become so commercialized, so ubiquitous, they've reached the point of parody. But O'Keeffe's is an enduring art. Like her adopted home and all those weathered skulls, her work is tough enough to survive a bit of branding.