Collections: American Art

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Ram's Head, White Hollyhock-Hills (Ram's Head and White Hollyhock, New Mexico)

Georgia O’Keeffe filled her landscapes of the desert Southwest with an abundance of horns and antlers. This painting features an enlarged ram’s skull and antlers hovering emblematically over landscape and sky; the organic lines and complex orifices of these nearly abstract forms conjure associations both phallic and feminine. Sexuality was a complicated issue for O’Keeffe. She famously denied that her landscapes or flower paintings were allegories of the female form, yet their lineage is obviously physical. In both cases, she asserted her own vision of the female body—camouflaged with protective layers of meaning.

Artist: Georgia O'Keeffe, American, 1887-1986
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dates: 1935
Dimensions: 30 x 36 in. (76.2 x 91.5 cm) (show scale)

Collections:American Art
Museum Location: This item is on view in Morris A. and Meyer Schapiro Gallery, 4th Floor
Accession Number: 1992.11.28
Credit Line: Brooklyn Museum, Bequest of Edith and Milton Lowenthal 1992.11.28
Rights Statement: © artist or artist's estate
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Caption: Georgia O'Keeffe (American, 1887-1986). Ram's Head, White Hollyhock-Hills (Ram's Head and White Hollyhock, New Mexico), 1935. Oil on canvas, 30 x 36 in. (76.2 x 91.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Museum, Bequest of Edith and Milton Lowenthal 1992.11.28, 1992.11.28. © artist or artist's estate
Image: overall, 1992.11.28_SL1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2010
"CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don't yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.

Record Completeness: Best (86%)
Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.

Bone [x]		Georgia O'Keeffe [x]
stirring [x]		bones [x]
intoxicating [x]		Cloudy Sky [x]
American Painting [x]		American Art [x]
landscape [x]		dream [x]
American West [x]		desert [x]
New Mexico [x]		symmetry [x]
american oil [x]		skull [x]
sky [x]		flower [x]
painting [x]

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Tags by Posse members

melissa (4)
- intoxicating
- bones
- stirring
- Georgia O'Keeffe
ninakuriloff (3)
- American Art
- American Painting
- Cloudy Sky
sassyass (5)
- New Mexico
- desert
- American West
- dream
- landscape
paul (1)
- symmetry
shelley (3)
- skull
- flower
- sky

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