Georgia O'Keeffe first saw the landscapes that shaped her later work in New Mexico in 1917.
O'Keeffe visited New Mexico for the first time in the summer of 1917, while traveling from Texas. She was struck by the region's clear light, mountains, adobe buildings, and distinctive terrain. The experience became a lasting source of imagery, although she continued living primarily in New York for years afterward.
From 1929 onward, O'Keeffe spent part of nearly every year in New Mexico. She painted cliffs, doors, churches, bones, hills, and the surrounding desert with a highly personal modernist vocabulary. In 1949, three years after Alfred Stieglitz's death, she moved permanently to the state.
New Mexico is not simply a setting added late in her career: its forms entered her work decades before her permanent move. The state is also distinct from the New Mexico communities associated with her homes and studios.