New Mexico became Georgia O'Keeffe's principal artistic home from the late 1940s.
O'Keeffe first visited New Mexico in 1917 and returned repeatedly during the 1920s and 1930s. The region's cliffs, deserts, bones, flowers, adobe buildings, and intense light became central subjects in her art. She often described the landscape as something she had to paint in order to understand.
After the death of Alfred Stieglitz in 1946, O'Keeffe moved permanently to New Mexico. She lived first at Ghost Ranch and later spent much of her time in Abiquiú, where she restored and occupied a historic adobe house.
New Mexico is sometimes treated as merely a late-career setting, but it shaped many of O'Keeffe's most recognizable images. The state also influenced her choice of objects and compositions, including animal bones, architectural forms, and broad views of the surrounding desert.