New Mexico became Georgia O’Keeffe’s principal artistic home and a major source of her iconic landscapes.
O’Keeffe first visited New Mexico in 1929 and returned repeatedly during the 1930s. The region’s adobe buildings, desert expanses, mountains, bones, churches, and distinctive light became central subjects in her work.
After Alfred Stieglitz died in 1946, O’Keeffe moved permanently to New Mexico. She lived and worked in Abiquiu and later spent substantial time in Santa Fe. Her paintings of the state helped shape public ideas about its landscape while also reflecting her highly personal way of selecting and simplifying forms.
New Mexico should not be confused with Texas, where O’Keeffe taught and worked earlier in her career, or New York, where Stieglitz’s galleries first brought her to wider attention. New Mexico was the long-term setting of her mature artistic life.