Mornings with O’Keeffe: Moments and Materials | Discovering Questions Posed by “Ram’s Skull with Brown Leaves, 1936”

For this special 90-minute program, dive into the story surrounding Georgia O’Keeffe’s painting Ram’s Skull with Brown Leaves, 1936, and the intriguing questions art historical research can uncover. 

Hear from O’Keeffe Museum experts, all of whom will provide unique and exciting perspectives about the painting, its historical context, and how their roles at the Museum converge around the study of O’Keeffe’s life and work 

Ram’s Skull with Brown Leaves, 1936 is currently on loan to the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum from the Roswell Museum and Art Center while they navigate a multi-year effort to recover from the catastrophic flood that reached their facility in October 2024. For more information about the RMAC’s recovery effort and how you can help, please visit macfoundation.com/aftertheflood.

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This talk is presented as part of Mornings with O’Keeffe, a free virtual lecture series held on the first Wednesday of each month. Please register in advance. Email contact@gokm.org or call 505-496-1000 for assistance with event registration.

Can’t make the talk? This program will be recorded and posted on our website and YouTube Channel.

About the Speakers:

Dale Kronkright has been Head of Conservation at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum since its inception in 1997. Kronkright began research into O’Keeffe’s studio materials and techniques in 2000 with scientists and conservators at the National Gallery of Art, resulting in the 2006 exhibition and catalog “Color and Conservation,” which documented the 40-year friendship of conservator Caroline Keck and Georgia O’Keeffe. His latest research on O’Keeffe’s studio materials and techniques was published in 2021 in the essay “An Intentional Language: The Studio Materials and Methods of Georgia O’Keeffe, 1915–1975” in the 2020 exhibition catalog for Georgia O’Keeffe, at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, in Madrid.

Dale earned his BA in American Culture Studies from the University of California at Davis and his postgraduate certificate in Conservation at the Peabody Museum at Harvard. Before coming to work for the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Dale was Senior Conservator for the Museum of New Mexico for seven years and was Senior Conservator at the Regional Conservation Center, Bishop Museum, Honolulu for six years.

He has served as an instructor and author for the Getty Conservation Institute and as adjunct faculty at the Art Conservation Graduate Program at SUNY Buffalo and the Department of Art Conservation at the University of Delaware at Winterthur.

Dr. Laura Wertheim Joseph joined the O’Keeffe in 2024 as Director of Curatorial Affairs and provides strategic leadership for the Museum’s collections, exhibitions, and research initiatives. Joseph, who was born and raised in Albuquerque, most recently served as the curator and director of exhibitions at the Minnesota Museum of American Art (the M) in St. Paul, where she played a leadership role in reviving the historic organization based on a collaborative, community-led curatorial model. She specializes in modern and contemporary art with a focus on embodiment, affect, and materiality, as well as intersectional feminism and gender and performance studies. Through her work, she seeks to celebrate undervalued sources of wisdom, underrecognized creative practices, and less common perspectives on cultural production.

Elizabeth Ehrnst is the Head of Research Collections and Services at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, where she strategically leads and oversees the Research Collections and Services department, including developing and maintaining archival and library collections, research and reference, access services, outreach, and exhibitions. She holds a Master of Library Science degree from Indiana University, specializing in art librarianship and digital libraries and has been working within the field of archives and librarianship for over two decades.