Georgia O'Keeffe made New Mexico her principal home from the 1940s onward.
She first visited New Mexico in 1917 and returned repeatedly during the following decades. The state's dry climate, stark architecture, mountains, bones, roads, and intense light became major sources for her paintings and drawings.
After Alfred Stieglitz died in 1946, O'Keeffe moved permanently from New York to New Mexico. She lived and worked primarily at Abiquiú and Ghost Ranch, later becoming closely identified with the region's landscape and visual culture.
New Mexico was not simply a backdrop in her art. O'Keeffe collected objects, walked through the terrain, and returned to the same motifs over many years. Her connection with the state is sometimes simplified as a late-career change, but it began decades earlier with her first visit in 1917.