In 1949 Georgia O’Keeffe moved permanently to the New Mexico desert, splitting her time between Abiquiú and the Ghost Ranch. Before her flight to the desert, O’Keeffe wrote often about her love for the desert, ” I am West again it is as fine as I remembered it-maybe finer. There is nothing to say about it except the fact that for me it’s the only place.”

Image: Georgia O’Keeffe, Patio with Black Door, 1955, oil on canvas, 101.6 x 76.2 cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Gift of William H. Lane Foundation