Georgia O'Keeffe made New Mexico her permanent artistic home after moving there in 1949. She had first visited the state in 1929 and returned regularly for decades.
The region supplied subjects that became central to her mature work, including desert landscapes, adobe buildings, crosses, bones, and mountains. She lived and worked in Abiquiú and later maintained a home in nearby Ghost Ranch.
O'Keeffe's New Mexico paintings helped define how the American Southwest was represented in modern art. Her connection to the state was long-term and personal, not simply the result of a short painting trip.