New Mexico became Georgia O'Keeffe's primary home and artistic setting after 1949.
O'Keeffe first visited New Mexico in 1929 and returned regularly during the following decades. She was drawn to its stark landscapes, adobe buildings, bones, flowers, and intense light. After Alfred Stieglitz died in 1946, she moved permanently from New York to New Mexico in 1949.
She lived and worked at several important locations, including Abiquiú and Ghost Ranch. The area's cliffs, desert forms, and architectural details supplied subjects that appeared repeatedly in her paintings. Her New Mexico work helped define an enduring image of the American Southwest in modern art.
Although she is often described simply as a New Mexico painter, O'Keeffe also created important work from New York, Lake George, Texas, and Hawaii. New Mexico was not her birthplace, but it became the place most closely associated with her later life and mature artistic reputation.