New Mexico became Georgia O'Keeffe's best-known later home and artistic subject.
O'Keeffe first visited New Mexico in 1917 and returned repeatedly during the 1920s. The region's cliffs, deserts, adobe buildings, bones, flowers, and intense light became recurring subjects in her work. She found the landscape visually powerful and unlike the urban environment of New York.
After Alfred Stieglitz died in 1946, O'Keeffe moved permanently to New Mexico. She lived and worked in Abiquiú and spent time at Ghost Ranch, north of Santa Fe. These places supplied the settings for many of her best-known paintings and photographs.
New Mexico did not simply provide scenery for O'Keeffe. It became part of her public identity, although she resisted interpretations that reduced her paintings to autobiography or symbolism. Her art remained focused on close observation, simplified forms, and personal choices about scale and composition.