The American painter Georgia O’Keeffe, was one of the leading modern artists of America during the first half of the 20th century. She is best known for her abstract art, mostly semi-abstract images of flowers — whose sensuous forms are highly suggestive. Her oil on canvas, ‘Cow’s Skull with Calico Roses (1931)’ (91.4cm x 61cm) was based on a catastrophic drought in 1930 which O’Keeffe witnessed in the Southwest that caused the starvation of many animals, whose skeletons cluttered the landscape. The skeletons fascinated her and she shipped a number of them back to New York so she could paint them. In this piece, O’Keeffe added a gruesome note by decorating the skull with artificial flowers. The painting is displayed at the Art Institute of Chicago. — S.I.K.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, September 14th, 2014