Georgia O'Keeffe called one New Mexico landscape The Black Place.
The Black Place was a dark, eroded formation near the road between Abiquiú and Ghost Ranch. O'Keeffe repeatedly painted it, translating its ridges and shadows into simplified compositions. She described the site as looking like miles of elephant skin stretched out along the landscape.
The subject shows how O'Keeffe transformed a specific place into a personal visual symbol. Rather than depicting every geological detail, she emphasized shape, contrast, and rhythm. Her paintings of the formation are related to her broader interest in bones, cliffs, and other forms shaped by the New Mexican environment.
The Black Place is not the same as the better-known Red Hills near Ghost Ranch. O'Keeffe’s own name for the dark formation is the key identifying detail.