Red Hills and Bones 

Curator: Here we have Georgia O'Keeffe's painting, "Red Hills and Bones," created with oil paint. What is your immediate reaction to this landscape? Editor: Striking! It's all about texture and the physical reality of the painted surface. Look at those luscious reds—you can almost feel the grit of the pigments. Curator: Yes, the texture amplifies the symbolic landscape. The red hills, stark against the bones, resonate with a primordial feel, a connection to the earth and its history, and to life's enduring cycle. O’Keeffe, in her depictions of the Southwest, continuously captured themes of permanence and transition. Editor: The materiality also speaks to this cycle. Consider how the oil paint itself is derived from the earth, mimicking the geology O’Keeffe is portraying. And the bones—where did she source them? How did she physically manipulate and position them in her studio before immortalizing them on canvas? It begs the question, what kind of labor went into this? Curator: Fascinating. To me, the bone's presence evokes a sense of mortality but also resilience. In many cultures, bones represent not just death but also the enduring structure of life. This is consistent with other symbols within her oeuvre such as the flower. Editor: It is a powerful symbol but it feels overly romantic and obscures all the effort involved. What about the social context—the history of extraction and industry in the landscape that provided O'Keeffe her subjects? It needs unpacking! Curator: It’s fair to say O'Keeffe distills rather than details this reality, perhaps to capture an elemental encounter of human history. These desert landscapes may contain cultural meanings through Indigenous traditions. O’Keeffe shows respect through rendering of subject matter and symbolism, however, these depictions remain open for discussion on whose stories and connections are privileged through cultural record and consumption. Editor: A provocative point to consider regarding our perception of land, labor, and loss, and O’Keeffe’s art can, therefore, provoke debate concerning how it can offer an interpretation to life, and not just capture its reality. Curator: I agree, seeing her work invites a contemplation of cultural memory within physical settings. Editor: Absolutely, and viewing O’Keeffe invites considerations about material culture, inviting analysis of processes connected to how landscapes transform under economic consumption and expansion.