New Mexico became Georgia O'Keeffe's principal home and inspiration after 1949.
O'Keeffe first visited New Mexico in 1929 and returned repeatedly during the summers of the 1930s and 1940s. She was drawn to its desert landscapes, adobe buildings, bones, flowers, and intense light. These subjects became defining elements of her visual vocabulary.
After Alfred Stieglitz died in 1946, O'Keeffe moved permanently to New Mexico in 1949. She lived and worked at properties near Abiquiú and Ghost Ranch, while also maintaining a home in the village of Abiquiú.
New Mexico is sometimes reduced to a single “Southwestern” style in accounts of her career, but O'Keeffe also painted New York skyscrapers, Lake George scenes, flowers, and abstract forms. Her New Mexico work was influential because she interpreted the region through a highly personal, simplified vision rather than merely documenting it.