Black Place was the name Georgia O'Keeffe gave to a dark New Mexico cliff formation.
The formation lies near Ghost Ranch, and O'Keeffe painted it repeatedly. She described the subject as a shape she could see from a distance while traveling, and its stark tonal structure appealed to her interest in simplifying landscape into powerful abstract forms.
The Black Place paintings are not ordinary topographical records. O'Keeffe transformed the cliffs through changes in scale, color, viewpoint, and composition. Her repeated attention to one formation shows how she could turn a particular place into an enduring visual idea.
Black Place is easily confused with the White Place, another New Mexico landscape subject associated with O'Keeffe. The two names refer to different formations and contrasting visual experiences, even though both belong to the same broader landscape of northern New Mexico.