The Great American Everything

"At the time, the men were all talking about the great American novel, the great American play, the great American, oh, it was the great American everything. And I thought they didn’t know anything about America, a lot of them hadn’t been across the Hudson. So I thought, I’ll make my picture a red white and blue. I’ll make it an American painting...The bones do not symbolize death to me. They are shapes that I enjoy. It never occurs to me that they’re about death. They are very lively."

~ Georgia O'Keeffe, from "American Icons: Georgia O'Keeffe's Skull Paintings," Studio 360, November 12, 2010

Cow's Skull: Red, White, and Blue (1931)