Georgia O'Keeffe first visited New Mexico in 1929. She traveled there with her friend and fellow artist Rebecca Strand, wife of photographer Paul Strand, and the landscape immediately became a major source of inspiration. O'Keeffe returned repeatedly before eventually making New Mexico her permanent home.
The region offered subjects unlike those of her earlier New York and Lake George periods: adobe architecture, desert bones, dramatic cliffs, crosses, churches, and immense skies. She translated these forms into paintings that were both recognizably observed and strongly simplified. Her New Mexico work became central to how the public understood her art.
The year 1929 is distinct from 1949, when O'Keeffe moved permanently to New Mexico. It is also separate from 1924, the year she married Alfred Stieglitz. These dates mark different stages: her first encounter with the region, her marriage, and her eventual relocation.