New Mexico became Georgia O'Keeffe's principal home and artistic subject after her 1929 visit. She first traveled to the state that year and was deeply affected by its landscapes, architecture, bones, and intense light.
O'Keeffe spent part of each year in New Mexico for many years before moving there permanently after Alfred Stieglitz's death in 1946. The state supplied recurring subjects, including the cliffs and plains around Ghost Ranch, adobe buildings, crosses, animal bones, and the landscape near Abiquiu.
Her New Mexico paintings were not simply travel illustrations. O'Keeffe selected and simplified forms, often isolating them against broad areas of color or sky. This approach connected regional subjects with the modernist visual language that had already defined her career.
Arizona, Colorado, and Utah also have distinctive Southwestern landscapes, but New Mexico is the state most closely identified with O'Keeffe's mature life and work. Her homes and studios there are now important historic sites.