New Mexico became Georgia O'Keeffe's major late-career home and artistic subject.
O'Keeffe first visited New Mexico in 1929 and was drawn to its intense light, dry landscapes, adobe buildings, bones, and desert plants. She returned repeatedly and gradually made the region central to both her life and her art.
After Alfred Stieglitz died in 1946, O'Keeffe moved permanently to New Mexico. She lived in Abiquiu and later spent substantial time at Ghost Ranch, north of Santa Fe. Paintings such as those of the Rio Grande, black crosses, adobe walls, and animal bones reflect her engagement with the landscape.
New Mexico is sometimes treated merely as a late setting in her biography. In fact, it transformed her subject matter and working habits. The state’s visual forms became recurring motifs, while O'Keeffe maintained a highly personal approach rather than simply painting conventional landscapes.