Georgia O’Keeffe bought and restored a historic house in Abiquiú, New Mexico, in the 1940s.
O’Keeffe first saw the Abiquiú property, known as the “white place,” in 1935, but she could not acquire it immediately. The house had been abandoned and was in poor condition. She eventually bought it in 1945 and worked with architect Juan Hamilton to restore it.
The Abiquiú house became one of O’Keeffe’s principal homes and studios. Its courtyard, black door, adobe walls, and surrounding landscape appeared repeatedly in her paintings. The carefully controlled space also gave her a stable setting for working after years of dividing her life between New Mexico and New York.
Abiquiú is not the same as Ghost Ranch, another New Mexico location strongly associated with O’Keeffe. Ghost Ranch provided dramatic cliffs and open landscapes, while the Abiquiú house supplied intimate architectural motifs. The property is now preserved as the Georgia O’Keeffe Home and Studio and is managed as a historic site.