New Mexico became Georgia O'Keeffe's principal artistic home after her move west. She first visited the state in 1917 and returned repeatedly before making it her permanent base later in life.
O'Keeffe was drawn to New Mexico's stark landscape, adobe architecture, mountains, desert plants, and animal bones. These subjects became central to her mature work. She spent time in places including Abiquiú and Ghost Ranch, translating the region into paintings that were highly recognizable without simply functioning as travel illustrations.
She moved permanently to New Mexico in 1949, after Alfred Stieglitz's death. Her New Mexico paintings are sometimes described as a complete break from her earlier New York subjects, but her interest in simplified forms and close observation continued across both periods. New Mexico was the setting that gave those interests their most famous visual vocabulary.