New Mexico became Georgia O’Keeffe’s principal artistic home after 1929.
O’Keeffe first visited New Mexico in the summer of 1929 and was captivated by its intense light, expansive landscapes, adobe architecture, and distinctive geological forms. The region became a recurring subject in her paintings and drawings.
She eventually maintained homes in Abiquiu and Ghost Ranch. Her New Mexico subjects included the Chama River Valley, black crosses, desert bones, churches, cliffs, and the dramatic landscape around Cerro Pedernal.
O’Keeffe also spent important periods in New York and at Lake George, so New Mexico was not her only residence or subject. Nevertheless, the state became the setting most closely linked with her mature identity as an artist. She moved permanently to New Mexico in 1949, three years after Stieglitz’s death.