Rebirth
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| Georgia O'Keeffe's Ram's Head and White Hollyhock 1934 https://news.artnet.com/art-world/georgia-okeeffe-3-things-to-know-1925403 |
Georgia O'Keeffe's Ram's Head and White Hollyhock evoked immediate emotion before I could even consider the piece of art. The words that first came to mind were strength, desolation, beauty, and turmoil. The simplicity of this piece brings up very complex emotions and thoughts.
Her thick, continuous lines of the horns draw our eyes immediately to the upper corner, where we follow them down to the base, the skull. These horns also create an inverted triangle. The skull, the shape of the triangle, and the thick lines make us feel a steady and strong sense of death, possibly the wariness of the inevitable end of all life. Couple that with the varying shades of gray and white ellipses, it's as if the clouds were gathering, a storm brewing.
We follow the skull down to the jagged edges, where once the animal could nourish itself with its soft muzzle, but now its bleached skull is all that remains. Beneath the Ram's Head, we see rust-colored hills. Soft triangles point us back up to the skull. The colors of the hills-red, orange, brown, and the dark green from the trees bring some life back to us. We see desolate valleys, but with trees, we infer there is a life-giving source hidden in the hills. There is a hidden beauty in the hills, emoting hope that counters that from the turmoil in the sky and from the skull.
As our eyes are drawn back up to the middle of the painting, we see the Hollyhock flower. Thin lines move us in a circle of delicacy and beauty. The brighter color shades of yellow and off-white bring up contrasting emotions from before. There is a sense of peace, hope, and rebirth.
When we step back from this small journey, we see the balance of strength and delicacy, turmoil and peace, and death and life. This contrasting balance helps us appreciate the beauty of life and death together.
I intentionally did not look up any information about this piece of art, because I wanted the journey through the senses to be from me and not muddled with what I would read. It was intriguing when I finally read about the history of this piece and Georgia O'Keeffe's struggles right before she painted this.
Biography
Georgia O'Keeffe(1887-1986) was already an established artist before she painted this. She was born and raised in Wisconsin, and went to school at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Students League in New York, where she learned to become the artist she had always dreamed of being. She married photographer Alfred Stieglitz, who was the first person to exhibit her work in 1916. She became a well established artist, though she had a very rocky marriage with Stieglitz. In 1932 she had a mental breakdown, and in 1934 she painted The Ram's Head and White Hollyhock. In the painting you can see the turmoil she had been going through, along with the backdrop of the beautiful New Mexico landscape. She enjoyed collecting skulls she would find on her desert walks, finding beauty in them. There were many at the time in the desert from the recent dust bowl years. She didn't see them as a symbol of death, but a symbol of rebirth, which is essentially what she was experiencing in her own life after her breakdown. A new beginning, a new motivation to create the art she loved.
Works Cited
“About Georgia O'Keeffe.” The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, https://www.okeeffemuseum.org/about-georgia-okeeffe/. Accessed 15 September 2024.
White, Katie, and Brian Boucher. “This Legendary Georgia O'Keeffe Skull Painting Has an Uplifting Backstory—Here Are 3 Things You Might Not Know About It.” Artnet News, 29 November 2020, https://news.artnet.com/art-world/georgia-okeeffe-3-things-to-know-1925403. Accessed 15 September 2024.
This was a very interesting piece to take in. One of the more interesting elements to me was the use of space, in that the background is left very simple with silhouettes of trees and staggered hills. It seems plain almost in a way and it redirects the focus back to the central focus without leaving it in a blank void. It feels almost satisfying to look at the skull yet unnerving at the same time.
ReplyDeleteoh what a great point! I hadn't thought of that but you are absolutely right. I agree, it is unnerving and beautiful to look at the skull. Thank you for your thoughts!
DeleteHey, I thought this was super interesting. When you talked about the Hollyhock Flower, I felt that same emotional impact it could have on the viewer, it indeed had that feeling of sense and reassurance. I also thought it was intriguing you didn't read anything on the work of art, so that your emotions wouldn't be swayed by outside information. Cool tactic!
ReplyDeletePaul Williams Jr. I like how you wrote it is rebirth, everything goes back to the earth, when all living things and plants dies, it is reborn in the spring time. That is beautiful and it is new, and fresh. I love that. It is hopeful and it is life.
ReplyDelete