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Digital Archive Take It or Leave It: Institution, Image, Ideology
Art Sherrie Levine, Steer Skull, Horned
Steer Skull, Horned, by Sherrie Levine, 2002

Sherrie Levine, Artist
Steer Skull, Horned , 2002

Medium
Cast bronze
Dimensions
14 x 19 x 20 in. (35.6 x 48.3 x 50.8 cm)
Credit Line
Collection of Edward Israel, Los Angeles. Image courtesy of Paula Cooper Gallery, New York

The shiny high-design aesthetic of Steer Skull, Horned is somewhat at odds with the art historical reference that it calls up: paintings of animal skulls by Georgia O'Keeffe. In referencing a form so closely linked to the female painter yet insisting on a different function for it (sculpture rather than painting, the permanence of metal replacing entropic bone), Levine gestures to the mobility of citation. Hers is a kind of homage to O'Keeffe and brings to mind the fantasy of the Southwest her biography inspires, yet the sculpture is also imbued with a broader evaluation of icons of American identity.