New Mexico became Georgia O'Keeffe's lifelong artistic setting after the 1920s. She first visited the state in 1929 and returned repeatedly, eventually making it her permanent home and a central source of imagery.
The region offered O'Keeffe subjects unlike those in New York: high desert skies, adobe buildings, cliffs, bones, flowers, and the dramatic landscapes around Ghost Ranch and Abiquiú. She translated these forms into simplified compositions with strong shapes and intense colors.
O'Keeffe moved permanently to New Mexico in 1949, after the death of her husband, photographer and gallery owner Alfred Stieglitz. She maintained homes in Abiquiú and at Ghost Ranch, working there for much of the rest of her life.
New Mexico is sometimes described as merely a backdrop for her art, but it was more important than that. The landscape became a sustained subject, visual vocabulary, and personal environment across many decades.