Abiquiú became a major base for Georgia O'Keeffe from 1949.
O'Keeffe first visited New Mexico in 1917 and returned regularly from 1929 onward. In 1949, three years after Alfred Stieglitz’s death, she moved permanently from New York to New Mexico. She divided her time between Abiquiú and Ghost Ranch, both of which supplied subjects for her paintings.
Her Abiquiú home had a distinctive adobe wall and door that she painted repeatedly. Works based on this doorway include paintings from the 1940s and 1950s, turning a local architectural detail into one of her most recognizable motifs.
Abiquiú is a village in northern New Mexico, while Ghost Ranch is a separate area farther northwest. Santa Fe was another important nearby cultural center, but it was not the village that became O'Keeffe’s principal home base. Her New Mexico landscapes helped define the public image of her later career.