Georgia O'Keeffe found the desert landscapes that became central to her art in New Mexico.
O'Keeffe first visited New Mexico in 1917 and returned repeatedly during the 1920s. The state’s cliffs, bones, adobe buildings, and broad skies supplied subjects that differed sharply from the urban settings of New York, where she had spent much of her early professional life.
She moved to New Mexico permanently after Alfred Stieglitz died in 1946. O'Keeffe lived and worked at Abiquiú and Ghost Ranch, developing a visual language built from close observation and simplified forms. New Mexico is sometimes treated as merely a late-career setting, but the region influenced her work for decades before her permanent move. Its landscapes became as recognizable in her paintings as her enlarged flowers.