Georgia O'Keeffe spent much of her later life in New Mexico, where she painted many of her best-known landscapes.
O'Keeffe first visited New Mexico in 1917 and returned regularly beginning in 1929. She was attracted to the region's cliffs, desert plants, adobe buildings, animal bones, and intense light. These subjects became central to her mature work and helped define her public image.
After Alfred Stieglitz died in 1946, O'Keeffe moved permanently to New Mexico in 1949. She lived and worked in Abiquiu and also maintained a home at Ghost Ranch, north of Santa Fe. Paintings such as Red and Yellow Cliffs and Black Place reflect her sustained engagement with the region's landscape.
New Mexico did not mark a complete break with her earlier art. O'Keeffe continued to paint flowers and abstract forms, but the desert environment gave her a new group of recurring subjects. Her New Mexico homes are now preserved as historic sites.