ABSTRACT
Few individuals' influence has been as pervasive in the history of American art as Georgia O'Keeffe. The influence of New Mexico's indigenous architecture and natural landscape provides a thread of continuity through more than half a century of painting. Moreover, the artist's perceptions and depictions of New Mexico's built and natural environments suggest experiential connections between architecture and the visual arts that begin to establish a broad and meaningful context for the role of regionalism in American cultural history. Regionalism in American art and architecture has always been connected, to some degree, to the North American quest for an indigenous expression that could rival the long-established traditions, principles, and techniques of Western Europe. In 1934, O'Keeffe moved into an adobe house at Ghost Ranch, a large complex owned by conservationist Arthur Newton Pack and operated as a dude ranch. O'Keeffe also became interested in an abandoned Catholic mission located in the village of Abiquiu.
