120. O'Keeffe, after Whistler
  • David P. Bradley (Chippewa, born 1954)
  • New Mexico
  • 2007
  • Acrylic paint on canvas
  • Native Arts acquisition funds, 2012.315

David Bradley has worked in the southwestern city of Santa Fe, New Mexico. He addresses how Indigenous peoples have been stereotyped and how their artwork and imagery have been appropriated by the United States culture. In this work, Bradley paints the American artist Georgia O’Keeffe, who was renowned for her paintings of the New Mexico landscape. At one point, O’Keeffe was attracted by Hopi katsinam and created a series of works about them. After seeing O’Keeffe clad in black and white clothing in Santa Fe, Bradley painted her in a composition similar to James McNeill Whistler’s famous painting Arrangement in Grey and Black No.1 better known as Whistler's Mother.
In this work portraying O’Keeffe painting a katsina at her easel, Bradley points out that O’Keeffe co-opted the artistry of Indigenous culture for her own.