What 1929 painting began Georgia O'Keeffe’s long series inspired by New Mexico’s landscape?

Georgia O'Keeffe’s 1929 painting Black Cross, New Mexico began her long series inspired by New Mexico’s landscape.

O'Keeffe first visited New Mexico in 1929 and soon began making paintings based on its stark terrain, architecture, bones, and religious symbols. Black Cross, New Mexico, painted that year, is among the earliest major results of this sustained engagement with the region.

The painting presents a dark cross against a luminous Southwestern setting. O'Keeffe returned to New Mexico repeatedly during the 1930s and eventually moved there permanently in 1949. Her New Mexico subjects became central to her public identity, although she also painted flowers, New York architecture, and other landscapes. Black Cross, New Mexico should not be confused with her later paintings of the Pedernal or with the ram skull works that became especially recognizable symbols of her Southwestern period.