New Mexico became Georgia O'Keeffe's principal artistic setting after her permanent move there in 1949.
O'Keeffe first visited New Mexico in 1917 and returned repeatedly during the 1920s and 1930s. She painted its desert, cliffs, adobe buildings, bones, flowers, and wide skies, turning local forms into subjects with highly personal compositions.
In 1949, after Alfred Stieglitz's death, she moved permanently from New York to New Mexico. She lived in Abiquiú and later spent time in Santa Fe. The landscape was not merely a backdrop: its colors, geometry, and textures became central to the visual language of her mature work.
Her New Mexico paintings helped define her public image, although her career also included New York skyscrapers, flowers, and abstract studies. The state is therefore her best-known artistic setting, not the only one.